How are drug allergies diagnosed
Drug allergies are diagnosed by a careful review of the patient’s medical history and symptoms by a physician. If an allergy to an antibiotic such as pencillin is suspected, your doctor may do a skin test to confirm the allergy. However, skin testing does not work on all rugs and in some cases could be dangerous. Because of the potential risk associated with a reaction, if a patient has a sever, life threatening, allergic-type reaction to a particular drug, doctors will not consider that drug a viable treatment option, and will not usually conduct tests to determine if the initial reaction was a “true” allergic response.
How are drug allergies treated
The primary concern when treating drug allergies is relieving the symptoms. Common symptoms such as rash, lives and itching can often be controlled with antihistamines and occasionally corticosteroids. For coughing and lung congestion, adrenergic bronchodilators may be prescribed. For more serious, anaphylactic assumptions (life-threatening reactions, including difficulty breathing or loss of consciousness) epinephrine (Adrenaline) is usually injected.
Desensistization is occasionally used for penicillin allergy. The technique is designed to desensitize your body to particular allergy-causing agent. Pencillin is injected periodically at increasingly larger levels until your immune system learns to tolerate the drug.
If a patient is severly allergic to certain antibiotics, alternative antibiotics will be used.
Drug allergies are diagnosed by a careful review of the patient’s medical history and symptoms by a physician. If an allergy to an antibiotic such as pencillin is suspected, your doctor may do a skin test to confirm the allergy. However, skin testing does not work on all rugs and in some cases could be dangerous. Because of the potential risk associated with a reaction, if a patient has a sever, life threatening, allergic-type reaction to a particular drug, doctors will not consider that drug a viable treatment option, and will not usually conduct tests to determine if the initial reaction was a “true” allergic response.
How are drug allergies treated
The primary concern when treating drug allergies is relieving the symptoms. Common symptoms such as rash, lives and itching can often be controlled with antihistamines and occasionally corticosteroids. For coughing and lung congestion, adrenergic bronchodilators may be prescribed. For more serious, anaphylactic assumptions (life-threatening reactions, including difficulty breathing or loss of consciousness) epinephrine (Adrenaline) is usually injected.
Desensistization is occasionally used for penicillin allergy. The technique is designed to desensitize your body to particular allergy-causing agent. Pencillin is injected periodically at increasingly larger levels until your immune system learns to tolerate the drug.
If a patient is severly allergic to certain antibiotics, alternative antibiotics will be used.