Abstract
We report two cases of a 52 and 32-year-old males treated with cefotaxime. On day 23 and 28 of the treatment, the patients have manifested a clinical picture of fever, pruriginous skin rash and facial edema. Blood tests showed marked eosinophilia and atypical lymphocytosis for both patients and only hepatic cytolysis in the second patient. Cefotaxime was discontinued and the clinico-biological picture improved gradually to completely disappear approximately 4 weeks later. Six weeks after complete recovery, we performed for both patients an intradermal test (IDT) which was positive to cefotaxime (2 mg/ml) at 48 hour-reading and negative to benzylpenicillin, amoxicillin and cefazolin at 20 minute and 48 hour-reading. These clinical pictures suggest a Drug rash with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) induced by cefotaxime. To our best knowledge, only one case of cefotaxime-induced-DRESS has been reported in the medical literature. Thus, we add two new cases of cefotaxime-induced DRESS and point out the usefulness and safety of IDT in establishing the diagnosis.
- Received February 2, 2011.
- Revision received April 7, 2011.
- Accepted June 1, 2011.
