Drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome in pediatric patients

The antiepileptic hypersensitivity syndrome is a severe, multiorgan reactio n to oral antiepileptics that manifests as fever, rash, lymphadenopathy, an d hepatitis. This same reaction pattern also has been described following a dministration of a few unrelated medications. We report on 11 patients who had drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome and were admitted to our pediatr ic service and review 94 cases of this syndrome in pediatric patients ident ified from the literature. We undertook this study to summarize the finding s and alert clinicians to the severe internal organ involvement that can oc cur with this syndrome.