Do obese subjects have a high prevalence of documented penicillin allergy?

Abstract

Allergy documentation is frequently incomplete and/or inaccurate in the electronic health record. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of inpatient drug allergy consultation on documentation and management. METHODS: After IRB approval, a retrospective chart review was performed on all drug allergy consults (N590) between July 2018-June 2019. Descriptive statistics including frequencies and percentages were calculated using Excel. RESULTS: The most common reason for consult was past history of allergy (N540, 44%), most often to beta-lactams (N545, 38%) and NSAIDs (N519, 16%) reported as pruritus (N531, 15%) and urticaria (N529, 14%). Graded dose challenge was recommended most often (N538, 42%) followed by desensitization (N523, 26%), use of alternative therapy (N516, 18%), delabeling by history alone (N59, 10%), and inpatient skin prick testing (N54, 4%). Inpatient evaluation recommendations were completed successfully in a majority of the sixty-five cases recommending inpatient evaluation (N548, 74%). The recommended evaluation wasn't performed in fifteen (21%) of the cases and was unsuccessful in two (3%). In the fifty-five cases warranting allergy history modification, the history was modified (N551, 93%) most often by the pharmacist (N518, 35%). Comments were more often made to the allergies (N527, 53%) rather than removing them (N524, 47%). CONCLUSIONS: After a majority of inpatient allergy consultations, the drug allergy documentation was modified based on the management outcome. There is still a need to clarify when an allergy should be removed versus be commented on to ensure that allergies are not inappropriately added back to the history. 292 Factors Associated with Self-Reported Multiple Drug Allergies in a Large Chronic Urticaria Cohort