Lamotrigine-Induced „Stevens-Johnson” Syndrome

Abstract

The doctors issuing prescriptions to the patients must warn them about the possible adverse reactions. Although the drug adverse reactions are rare, sometimes they can endanger the life of the patient. One of the drug induced complications - including Lamictal - is the Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a potentially lethal status that is manifesting mainly at the level of the tegument and mucosa but can affect other vital organs. Most Stevens - Johnson syndrome cases, being linked to Lamictal, have happened early at the treatment start, when the dosage was rapidly increased, disregarding the progressive increase of the medicine. Many types of drugs were proven to be efficient in treating the syndrome and the use of corticotherapy is contested in some studies and encouraged in others. The care of the patients with Stevens - Johnson syndrome consists of treatment of the symptoms. We describe in this paper a SJS case, manifested at a epilepsy patient, of whom Convulex treatment followed for 19 years was replaced with Lamictal. The treatment scheme was dome by reducing the Convulex dosage and introducing fast increasing Lamictal doses and in the 4th week the SKS appeared. The evolution of the disease was slowly favorable by treating the associated symptoms cu corticotherapy. In conclusion, although the incidence of the Stevens-Johnson syndrome is low (2-6 persons from 1000000), the doctors must aware of the possibility of its occurrence and the use of the corticotherapy, albeit controversial, can lead to the cure of the disease alongside the symptomatology treatment.