Stevens-Johnson syndrome induced by methazolamide treatment
S. Shirato, F. Kagaya, Y. Suzuki and S. Joukou
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tokyo School of Medicine, Japan.
Four cases of Stevens-Johnson syndrome considered to be induced by
methazolamide were reported. In all of the cases, the first signs of
Stevens-Johnson syndrome (i.e., swelling of the skin and mucous membranes
or slight fever) appeared about 2 weeks after the patient started taking
methazolamide (75 or 100 mg/d). After the appearance of erythema, the skin
and mucous membrane lesions progressed rapidly and spread over the entire
body, even after the patient ended methazolamide treatment and started
treatment with prednisolone. During prednisolone treatment, the skin and
mucous lesions became bullous, ruptured spontaneously, and dried with crust
or erosion. HLA typing was positive for HLA-B59 in 3 of 4 cases.
Methazolamide should be prescribed with caution in patients of Japanese or
Korean descent.
