Can someone who reports an allergy to sulfonamide antibiotics use sulfonamide nonantibiotics?
Reactions to sulfonamide antibiotics occur in approximately 3% to 6% of courses of therapy spanning from a rash to severe anaphylactic reactions. To practitioners, this can be problematic as sulfa-containing compounds are a mainstay of therapy for many disease states such as infections, diabetes, human immunodeficiency virus, hypertension, and edema. Hypersensitivity reactions typically present with a fever and maculopapular rash, approximately 7 to14 days after beginning therapy. More serious cases involving Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis rarely occur. Cross-reactivity of sulfonamides depends on several variables: similarity in structural composition, degree and extent of metabolism, and individual metabolic pathways. Sulfonamides can be classified based on their chemical structure. As a functional group, sulfonamides are chemical structures that include a sulfur dioxide and nitrogen moiety directly attached to a benzene ring. The presence or absence of an aro
