Drug-induced oral erythema multiforme. Results of a long-term retrospective study.

As reliable data on prevalence rates of drug-induced oral mucosa side effects are scarce in the medical literature, a retrospective analysis of drugs as possible inducers in 173 in-patients with either minor or major type of erythema multiforme (EM) admitted to the Erlangen University Department of Dermatology from 1970 through 1981 was carried out. In 62 of these cases precipitation by drugs was suspected by history, in 31 of them with oral mucosa involvement. In 11 out of 19 patients with mucocutaneous EM drug testing either in vivo or in vitro provided evidence for drug induction of EM.