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Hypersensitivity reactions to beta-lactam antibiotics

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Abstract

Clinicians commonly encounter patients with a history of allergy to penicillin and other beta-lactam antibiotics, since about 10% of the population reports such an allergy. At the same time, it is known that about 90% of these patients are not truly allergic and could safely receive beta-lactam antibiotics. Instead, these patients are treated unnecessarily with alternate broad-spectrum antibiotics, which increases costs and contributes to the development and spread of multiple drug-resistant bacteria.

In the case of penicillin, relevant allergenic determinants that elicit immune responses are known. Hence, validated diagnostic skin testing to detect the presence of drug-specific IgE antibodies is available. For non-penicillin beta-lactams, the immunogenic determinants that are produced by degradation are unknown, and diagnostic skin testing is of more limited value. Ideally, patients with a history of penicillin allergy should be evaluated when they are well and not in immediate need of antibiotic therapy. Patients who are found to be penicillin skin test-negative may be safely treated with all beta-lactam antibiotics. Penicillin skin testpositive patients should only receive a penicillin-class antibiotic via rapid desensitization, and only in cases when an alternative agent cannot be substituted. Penicillin skin test-positive patients may be safely treated with monobactams. The extent of allergic cross-reactivity between penicillin arid cephalosporins/carbapenems is uncertain; therefore penicillin skin test-positive patients should only receive these antibiotics via cautious graded challenge or desensitization.

Identification of patients who erroneously carry a label of beta-lactam allergy leads to improved utilization of antibiotics and slows the spread of multiple drug-resistant bacteria.

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Solensky, R. Hypersensitivity reactions to beta-lactam antibiotics. Clinic Rev Allerg Immunol 24, 201–219 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1385/CRIAI:24:3:201

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