Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) are serious skin reactions that occur when a patient experiences a severe allergic reaction to a medication. The most worrisome aspect about SJS and TEN is that these related skin diseases can occur to anyone at any time to various types of pharmaceutical drugs.

What is Stevens Johnson Syndrome?

When a patient develops Stevens Johnson Syndrome, they generally first exhibit flu-like symptoms like tiredness, fatigue, fever, and a sore mouth or throat. However, one of the telling signs of this painful skin reaction is the development of SJS rashes, which appear red and purple and spread quickly within a few hours. As the skin disease progresses, SJS victims will suffer from blisters forming on the skin areas where the SJS rash appeared, as well as mucous membrane that lines a person’s mouth, nose, eyes, and genital area. Eventually, SJS can progress to the point that the upper layer of skin begins to peel off away from the body, leaving behind painful burns, lesions, and scars

SJS can turn into TEN if the area of burnt and blistered skin spreads beyond 30 percent of the body. Many individuals who develop TEN have up to 90 percent of their covered in SJS rashes, burns, and lesions. With both SJS and TEN, there is a risk of death for the patient, though the risk increases when a patient is rediagnosed with TEN. Because of the chance of death, infection, and permanent injuries from this skin disease, SJS and TEN patients require weeks to months of hospitalization, usually in a hospital’s burn ward, in order to receive constant treatment and monitoring by healthcare professionals.

What Drugs Cause SJS and TEN?

As previously stated, any medication has the potential to set off a Stevens Johnson Syndrome reaction in an individual. This includes both over-the-counter medications one can find in the aisle of a local drugstore and prescription drugs one receives from a pharmacy per the request of their physician.

According to the Stevens Johnson Syndrome lawsuits filed against various manufacturers, the medications most often alleged to cause SJS and TEN are:

• Acetaminophen®
• Aldactone®
• Aldactizide®
• Advil®
• Allopurinol®
• Altace®
• Ampicillin®
• Arthrotec®
• Azithromycin®
• Azulfadine®
• Cefatoxime®
• Celebrex®
• Cerebyx®
• Cleocin®
• Daypro®
• Diclofenac®
• Diflucan®
• Dilantin®
• Famotidine®
• Feraheme® (ferumoxytol)
• Flector Patch®
• Fentanyl®
• Flagyl®
• Ibuprofen®
• Lamictal®
• Montelukast®
• Misoprostol®
• Motrin®
• Naproxen®
• Norvasc®
• Phenytoin®
• Piroxicam®
• Procardia®
• Protonix®
• Rifampin®
• Tamiflu®
• Tylenol®
• Zithromax®
• Zarontin®
• ZPak®

This is by no means a comprehensive list. However, it does demonstrate not only the number of medications known to cause this deadly skin reactions, and also shows the groups of drugs that are likely to set off a SJS reactions. For example, anticonvulsant medications like Lamictal and Phenytoin (or more commonly referred to as Dilantin) have been named in numerous SJS lawsuits in just the last year alone. Additionally, antibiotic medication like Azithromycin (or Zpak, Zmax, and Zithromax) have also caused their manufacturers to be sued in multiple SJS lawsuits over the last few years.

If you believe you or a loved one suffered SJS or TEN because of a drug reaction, you should consider filing a Stevens Johnson Syndrome lawsuit or joining a Stevens Johnson Syndrome class action lawsuit against the drug’s manufacturer.