Background: Cutaneous adverse drug reactions correspond to adverse effects with cutaneous expression resulting from the systemic penetration of a drug in the body. The aim of this study is to evaluate the various clinical pictures of RCM, their epidemiologic characteristics as well as the different causative drugs, through a retrospective hospital series.
Methods: It is about a retrospective study about all the patients consulting and/or hospitalized for suspicion of an adverse cutaneous drug reaction led to the service of dermatology of the teaching hospital Habib Thameur of Tunis over a 3-year period (from January 2002 to December 2004). The diagnosis was based on a beam of clinical and anamnestic arguments. Only the patients having a positive pharmacovigilance investigation were retained.
Results: 28 patients were retained for this study. The macular and papular exanthema represented the most frequent clinical aspects followed by acute urticaria and fixed drug eruption. The antibiotics represented the most causative drugs followed by analgesics and non steroidal anti-inflammatory.
Conclusion: We record a lower frequency of cutaneous adverse drug reactions in comparison with the literature. We also find a high frequency of severe forms and stress on the difficulties encountered in the identification of the causativele drugs. Though, a close cooperation between the various hospital structures and pharmacovigilance centers is mandatory.