A fixed drug eruption due to paracetamol

Abstract

A fixed drug eruption due to paracetamol is reported. Over 10,000,000 prescriptions (EC10) for paracetamol are issued annually and rashes occurring as possible adverse reactions to this drug are reported fairly frequently to the Committee on Safety of Medicines (Committee on Safety of Medicines-personal communication). These include urticaria, angioneurotic oedema, purpura, morbilliform and scarlatiniform rashes, erythema nodosum, eczema, alopecia and nail changes but in many of these cases the cause-effect relationship is unproven. One strongly suspected case (Savin, 1970) was reported from St John's Hospital. This was a patient who developed a fixed drug rash after taking a chlormezanone-paracetamol combination. However, no other reports of a fixed drug rash which was proved to be due to parcetamol have been found.