Toxic epidermal necrolysis in Malaysian adults. A retrospective study

We report a retrospective study of all cases of toxic epidermal necrolysis admitted to the adult medical wards of the University Hospital in Kuala Lumpur over a 16 year period from 1967 to 1983. Over this period of time only 7 cases were encountered, suggesting the condition is rare in adults in our country. All the cases were females and the age ranged from 21 to 41 years. Four cases were due to drugs, 2 were idiopathic and one was attributed to Staphylococcal infection. One patient died. The other patients recovered completely with no sequelae.