Introduction
In 2020 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared as a global pandemic. Self-reported stress, anxiety, and insomnia, which are believed to be common triggers for epilepsy, are more likely to occur. We aimed to establish the influence of COVID-19 pandemic itself so as changes in the daily life routine related to pandemic on epilepsy course in pediatric patients. The unique form of clinical care which is telemedicine was also taken into consideration. We wanted to evaluate patients' satisfaction with telemedicine and if changing stationary visits into telemedicine influenced epilepsy course in our patients.
Methods
Patients, who attended developmental neurology outpatient clinic in the period March-December 2020 were collected. As patients were minors, legal guardians were asked to fill out the questionnaire. Patients were divided according to the outcome into three groups: those with a worsened, stable or improved course of epilepsy during the pandemic. Appropriate statistical tests for two-group and multi-group comparisons have been implemented. Post-hoc p values were also calculated.
Results
402 questionnaires were collected. Most of the patients had a stable course of epilepsy during the pandemic; in 13% of participants an improvement has been observed, worsening of the disease was seen in 16% of patients. Age, sex, type of epilepsy, number of seizure incidents before pandemic, and duration of the disease had no statistically significant connection with changes in the course of the disease. Behavioral changes and altered sleep patterns were found to be more common in the worsened group.
58% of patients were satisfied with telemedicine. Poorer satisfaction was connected with less frequent visits, cancellation of scheduled appointments, and lack of help in case of need of emergency situation.
Conclusion
Epilepsy course in pediatric patients seems to be stable during COVID-19 pandemic. Sleep disturbances and changes in a child's behavior may be related to increase in seizures frequency. Telemedicine is effective tool for supervising children with epilepsy. Patients should be informed about possible ways of getting help in urgent cases.
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are unexpected reactions to a medication administered in a correct way at a standard dose. Drug-induced skin reactions account for 60–70% of all ADRs. The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of antibiotic-related dermatological ADR in patients treated in the department of Dermatology, Venerology and Allergology of the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk, Poland, in the years 2004–2021. A retrospective analysis of patients’ medical files was conducted in order to identify cases of ADR connected with the use of antibiotics, yielding 84 cases. The most common group of antibiotics were β-lactam, causing ADR in 47 patients. β-lactam antibiotics in our study included amoxicillin, alone and combined with clavulanic acid, and cephalosporins, affecting 22, 18 and 7 patients, respectively. In conclusion, β-lactam antibiotics showed the highest prevalence among antibiotic-induced skin reactions. They accounted for 15% of cases of all dermatological drug reactions and 55% of those caused by antibiotics. Especially amoxicillin, prescribed as a single drug or in combination with clavulanic acid, was commonly the culprit. Due to its wide use in the hospital and outpatient clinic, these adverse reactions have to be kept in mind by both hospital staff and general practitioners.
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