Neutrophilic fixed drug eruption, a histopathologic variant or an expected finding?-A report of two cases and review of the literature.
Zachary TherouxJerad M GardnerEduardo G OrtizGrace KosikJacqueline Junkins-HopkinsPublished in: Journal of cutaneous pathology (2023)
Fixed drug eruption (FDE) is an adverse drug reaction characterized by recurrent circumscribed lesions at the same location upon re-exposure to the culprit medication, resulting in distinct postinflammatory hyperpigmentation. Histopathologically, FDE demonstrates a predominantly lymphocytic interface or lichenoid infiltrate with basal cell vacuolar changes and keratinocyte dyskeratosis/apoptosis. The term "neutrophilic fixed drug eruption" has been used to describe cases in which the inflammatory infiltrate is predominantly neutrophilic. The infiltrate can extend deeper in the dermis, potentially mimicking a neutrophilic dermatosis such as Sweet syndrome. We present two cases and review the literature to discuss the possibility that a neutrophilic inflammatory infiltrate may be an expected finding in FDE, rather than a histopathologic variant.