A retrospective study of epidemiological and clinical patterns of ACDRs in Goa medical college over a 6 year period

Background: adverse cutaneous drug reactions (acdrs) account for 3% of all hospitalizations. the spectrum of drug reactions can be varied from mild to life threatening forms. since the diagnosis of acdr is purely clinical,early and prompt identification and withdrawal of drug (s) is life saving for the patient. aim and objectives: to study the epidemiological and common clinical patterns and drugs causing acdrs in tertiary care hospital of goa medical college,goa over a 6 year period. material and methods: this was a retrospective study conducted over a period of 6 years. the medical records were analyzed for demographic profiles,morphology of drug eruptions,common groups of drugs involved,presence of co-morbid factors,systemic and mucosal involvement,common haematological abnormalities encountered,time interval between drug intake and onset of rash and mortality. results: our study population had 256 patients and the age group of 21-40 years was commonly affected. maculopapular rash followed by angioedema were the commonest morphology of drug rash patterns encountered in our study. the time interval between consumption of drugs and onset of acdr varied with interval of 1-7 days being the commonest group in having 158 (61.7%) patients. antibiotics followed by anticonvulsants and antiretrovirals were the commonest groups of drugs causing acdr. we found that significant proportion of our patients had haematological,renal and hepatic system involvement. conclusion: early identification and withdrawal of the culprit drug remains the cornerstone in prevention of mortalities in acdrs. a prior knowledge about the reaction patterns and common offending drugs in the population by the treating physician cannot be overemphasized. © journal of krishna institute of medical sciences university.