TOPLINE:

A study revealed that although 15.9% of hospitalized patients reported a drug allergy, over 90% of assessed cases were classified as low risk and potentially eligible for delabeling.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers sought to determine the prevalence of patient-reported drug allergies and the characteristics of the reported reactions.
• They included 1522 patients from multiple surgical wards of the Albert Szent-Györgyi Health Centre of the University of Szeged in Hungary and used a structured questionnaire to collect data on patient characteristics, medication use, and perceived adverse drug reactions.
• They classified cases as high risk if patients had a severe reaction within 10 years or a severe cutaneous adverse drug reaction, and low risk if the reaction occurred more than 10 years ago, was untreated, mild, uncertain, or likely a side effect.
• Patients were considered for delabeling only if their allergy case was classified as low risk and they had undergone a skin prick test or direct oral challenge.

TAKEAWAY:

• Of 1522 hospitalized patients, 242 (15.90%) reported at least one drug allergy, with a total of 384 drug-allergy cases identified.
• Of 277 cases included in the risk assessment, 25 (9.03%) were classified as high risk and 252 (90.97%) as low risk and eligible for potential allergy delabeling.
• The most common allergens were systemic antibacterial agents (102 cases), followed by analgesics (65) and anti-inflammatory and antirheumatic products (28).
• The most frequent symptoms were skin manifestations (151 cases), pruritus (128), angioedema (78), and dyspnea (67).

IN PRACTICE:

“Due to the frequent use of antibiotics, especially first line beta-lactam antibiotics in this patient population [surgical patients], potential drug allergy label removal is of special importance,” the authors of the study wrote. “Systematically re-evaluating allergy labels [is] essential to optimize patient care.” 

SOURCE:

Ria Benko, PhD, with the University of Szeged in Szeged, Hungary, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on August 21 in the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 

LIMITATIONS:

Memory bias in patient reports may have limited the accuracy of culprit drug identification or symptom recall. Restricting the sample to surgical patients may have limited generalizability, and excluding patients with incomplete reaction details could have underestimated low-risk patients eligible for delabeling.

DISCLOSURES:

The study received support for open-access funding from the University of Szeged. The project was supported by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary through the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.