Ex) Article Title, Author, Keywords
Ex) Article Title, Author, Keywords
2019; 11(1): 37-43
Published online March 31, 2019
Copyright © Korean Society for Pharmacoepidemiology and Risk Management.
Mira Moon,MS1*, Dong-Yoon Kang,MD1*, Suh-Young Lee,MD2,3, Min-Suk Yang, MD, PhD4, Ju-Yeun Lee, PhD5 and Hye-Ryun Kang, MD, PhD1,2,3
문미라1*, 강동윤1*, 이서영2,3, 양민석4, 이주연5, 강혜련1,2,3
This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Objective: Although it is not scientifically recommended due to lack of evidence, skin tests with cephalosporins have
been conventionally performed prior to administration in most hospitals in Korea regardless of previous allergy to
antibiotics. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the result of cephalosporin skin test was affected by the history
of allergic reactions in order to provide evidence to narrow down the range of subjects to perform cephalosporin
skin test before use. Methods: From October 2004 to June 2015, the electronic medical records of all the patients who
were prescribed cephalosporin were reviewed to investigate whether previous history of allergic disease or drug allergy
affect the skin test positivity. Results: Among the total of 87,313 patients who underwent cephalosporin skin tests,
4,975 cases (5.70%) had a history of allergy and 1,139 cases (1.30%) presented positivity on cephalosporin skin test;
the intersection of two groups was only 91 (7.99% of cephalosporin skin test positive cases) and 92.01% of cephalosporin
skin test negative cases did not have previous allergy history. The positive rates of cephalosporin skin test
were significantly different according to the presence or absence of comorbid allergy (1.83% vs. 1.27%, p=0.001).
Patients with history of allergy to antibiotics also showed a higher positive rate (2.10% vs 1.30%) but this difference
did not reach statistical significance (p=0.08). Conclusion: Previous allergy history may affect the cephalosporin skin test
result. However, most cases showing positivity to cephalosporin were free of allergy history. Therefore, previous allergy
history is not an appropriate inclusion criteria to perform cephalosporin skin test. (JPERM 2019;11:37-43)
: Hypersensitivity; Drug hypersensitivity; Cephalosporins; Skin tests; Intradermal tests
Keywords Hypersensitivity, Drug hypersensitivity, Cephalosporins, Skin tests, Intradermal tests
