Advil is one of the few medications that has become a household name — and indeed is used in households across the country. Generally, people consider this medication to be extremely safe, and use it without much thought given to possible side effects.

Yet this over-the-counter antibiotic medication may have some serious side effects. Stevens Johnson Syndrome, a life-threatening skin condition, and its more dangerous form, Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) could be some of these Advil skin side effects.

Advil Basics

The common over-the-counter medication, ibuprofen, is marketed under several brand names, one of the best-known of which is Advil.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved ibuprofen back in 1974. Ibuprofen and its brand name medications like Advil belong to a group of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, or NSAIDs.

People use Advil and other ibuprofen drugs to reduce the pain and inflammation often caused by headaches, joint pain, menstrual cramps and injuries.

Advil Skin Side Effects

Of course, any medication will come with some minor side effects, and Advil is no different. However, along with regular side effects of ibuprofen like nausea, mild itching or rash, or dizziness, there are also more severe Advil skin side effects that many users of the drug may not be aware of.

Advil skin side effects include a dangerous complication known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome, or SJS, as well as its more advanced form, toxic epidermal necrolysis, or TEN.

Though these more serious Advil skin side effects are rare in patients taking the widely used drug, the effects of these conditions can be irreversible and, in some cases, life-threatening.

Advil Skin Side Effects: Stevens Johnson Syndrome

Early signs of Stevens Johnson Syndrome resemble symptoms of the flu, including fever, cough, fatigue or a sore throat.

But soon, symptoms may break out in the form of a red or purple rash, quickly blistering and spreading across a patient’s skin. Large areas of skin begin to peel and fall off. Symptoms of this serious rash so closely resemble a severe burn that this condition is often treated in a hospital’s burn wing.

Even if the skin rash a patient has developed while taking Advil is mild, it may eventually progress to something more serious, changing to purple or red, blistering and spreading across the skin. It is best to be cautious with these kinds of Advil skin side effects, as they may develop into something more severe.

Stevens Johnson Syndrome is reclassified as toxic epidermal necrolysis once it covers over 30 percent of a patient’s body. The difference in severity is an important distinction: the mortality rate linked with SJS is 15 percent, while the mortality rate of TEN is closer to 40 percent.

Even the patients for whom the condition is not fatal may be left with permanent damage even after recovering from SJS or TEN. Many are left with permanent scarring or discoloration, eye complications, blindness and more.

Filing a Lawsuit over Advil Skin Side Effects

If you or someone you love has suffered from Stevens Johnson Syndrome after taking Advil, you may be able to file an Advil skin side effects lawsuit. While filing a lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering of a condition like Stevens Johnson Syndrome, it can help to alleviate the financial burden caused by medical costs and lost wages.