UMEM Educational Pearls

Title: Skin Toxicity

Keywords: alopecia, acneiform (PubMed Search)

Posted: 6/2/2011 by Fermin Barrueto (Updated: 12/26/2024)
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Certain medications can cause a certain dermatologic pattern. Many fall into a generic waste basket of "contact dermatitis" but here are some more characteristic findings and the drugs that can cause them:

Alopecia - anticoagulants, chemo, phenytoin, retinoids, selenium, thallium

Erythema multiforme - allopurinol, barbiturates, carbamazepine, cimetidine, some antibiotics

Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) - allopurinol, bactrim (sulfonamides), mithramycin, PCN, sulfasalazine, nitrofurantoin, phenytoin, prazocin