Many Patients With Penicillin Allergy History May Be Able to Safely Take The Drug

WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Oct 18 - The results of a prospective pilot study suggest that a history of penicillin allergy may not be a contraindication to penicillin use.

In the October issue of the journal Chest, Dr. Alejandro C. Arroliga and researchers from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation report that 20 of 21 patients admitted to the medical ICU over a 90-day period with a history of penicillin allergy showed negative reactions to penicillin skin tests. Ten of these patients were switched to penicillin without incident.

"It is important to remember that patients with allergy tend to lose their sensitivity to penicillin over time, as demonstrated by a negative skin test," Dr. Arroliga said in a press release accompanying the study. "A person with a history of penicillin allergy and a negative reaction to a skin test may be able to use a penicillin compound that could reduce the use of certain alternative antibiotics and cut down on the increasing emergence of resistant microorganisms," he added.
Dr. Arroliga's team concludes that penicillin skin testing is a safe and reliable method of determining whether a person with a history of IgE-mediated penicillin allergy is actually at risk for an immediate allergic reaction if given the drug. They recommend that patients taking alternative antibiotics such as vancomycin or quinolones be switched to penicillin if they test negative. "This practice could reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance and improve quality of care," they write.