Life-threatening dermatologic conditions include Rocky Mountain spotted fever; necrotizing fasciitis; toxic epidermal necrolysis; and Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is the most common rickettsial disease in the United States, with an overall mortality rate of 5 to 10 percent. Classic symptoms include fever, headache, and rash in a patient with a history of tick bite or e...

OBJECTIVE To determine the conjunctival bacterial flora present in patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome. METHODS A prospective study of the conjunctival bacterial flora was performed in 41 eyes of 22 patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome. The information gathered included the patient's sex and age, the duration of disease, the cause of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and treatments. Scrapings of...

Sir, Sertraline (Zoloft1) is a new selective inhibitor of serotonin re-uptake. This family of antidepressant drugs is considered to be safe, and cutaneous adverse reactions have rarely been reported (1). We report here a patient who developed StevensJohnson syndrome (SJS) after starting treatment with sertraline (Zoloft1). A 96-year-old woman was admitted with a cutaneous and mucosal eruption. ...

Fuchs' syndrome (Stevens-Johnson syndrome without skin involvement) is a sporadically diagnosed disease. Most authors consider it to be a pure mucosal variant of Stevens-Johnson syndrome; however, some consider the syndrome a separate entity. The complete absence of cutaneous symptoms may be the reason that not all cases of Fuchs' syndrome are diagnosed and properly classified. The authors desc...