The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy
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Review
Potential Negative Effects of Antimicrobial Allergy Labelling on Patient Care: A Systematic Review.
Antimicrobial allergy labels, either self-reported or placed in a patient's medical record, are common, but in many cases they are not associated with a true immunoglobulin E-mediated allergic response. ⋯ Most of the available literature is limited to penicillin or β-lactam allergy. The growing body of knowledge supports the concept that β-lactam allergy labels are not benign and that labelling in the absence of a true allergy has a negative effect on patient care. Allergy labelling appears to be associated with suboptimal antibiotic selection, greater treatment costs, prolonged length of stay, greater readmission rates, and higher prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms. There is an opportunity for antimicrobial stewardship programs to implement systematic allergy verification to optimize antimicrobial therapy and improve patient care.