Stevens-Johnson syndrome associated with ciprofloxacin: a review of adverse cutaneous events reported in Sweden as associated with this drug.

Abstract

Stevens-Johnson syndrome is a severe mucocutaneous reaction, which can be elicited by various drugs. We present 2 cases with this syndrome associated with ciprofloxacin treatment and review the adverse cutaneous events reported as possibly related to ciprofloxacin treatment in Sweden between 1988 and 2000. Eight cases, excluding ours, of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, and erythema multiforme were reported. This implies an annual incidence of these adverse cutaneous events of 0.045 per 100,000 treated patients (assuming an average treatment length of 10 days). One patient died, but ciprofloxacin was not considered to be the major cause of death. Together with previous data from the literature, our report supports the view that ciprofloxacin can cause severe adverse cutaneous events.