Treatments Your Provider May Prescribe
If your physician suspects a drug rash, he or she may want to establish the correct diagnosis by performing a biopsy of the lesion. The procedure involves:
- Numbing the skin with an injectable anesthetic.
- Sampling a small piece of skin by using a flexible razor blade, a scalpel, or a tiny cookie cutter (called a "punch biopsy"). If a punch biopsy is taken, a suture or two may be placed and will need to be removed 6–14 days later.
- Having the skin sample examined under the microscope by a specially trained physician (dermatopathologist).
In addition, your doctor may want to perform blood work to look for signs of an allergic reaction.
The best treatment for a drug rash is to stop the medication that is causing it. After discontinuing a medicine, it may take 5–10 days to see an improvement in the skin and up to 3 weeks for the rash to resolve completely.
Note: Stopping a prescription medication should be done only with a doctor's guidance.
Other treatments that may be helpful include:
- Oral antihistamine pills, such as diphenhydramine, hydroxyzine, loratadine, cetirizine, fexofenadine, or desloratadine, for itching.
- Topical corticosteroid (cortisone) creams or lotions for red, inflamed skin.
- Topical antibiotic ointments for open sores.
Self-Care Guidelines
