Introduction: The reported literature about the types of cutaneous adverse antibiotic reactions (ATB-CAR) and the responsible antimicrobial class is scarce.
Aim: to describe the clinical and histopathological profile of these reactions, and potential associations between different types of ATB-CAR and causal antibiotic class in a tertiary hospital in Chile.
Material and methods: Cross-sectional retrospective study performed at the Hospital of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Results: A total of 58 patients were included. The most common type of ATB-CAR was morbilliform (n: 37, 63.8%). The antibiotics most frequently involved were the penicillins and cephalosporins (n: 34, 69.3%). The most common histological pattern in all types of ATB-CAR was superficial perivascular dermatitis with or without spongiosis. There was significant association between urticarial, morbilliform, DRESS and PEGA types, with the use of penicillins, cephalosporins, cotrimoxazole, and lincomycin, respectively (n: 4,100%, n: 15, 40.5%, n: 2; 50%, n: 1, 50%, p < 0.05, respectively).
Discussion: This is the first description of the ATB-CAR patterns in South American hospitalized patients. Both clinical and histopathological patterns of ATB-CAR are similar to other published series, however the types of causal antibiotics are different.