FEASIBILITY OF SKIN TESTING FOR PENICILLIN SENSITIVITY

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Abstract
Many authors have stated that skin tests would determine whether penicillin can cause either anaphylactic or delayed reactions. Before the introduction of antibiotics, including the sulfonamides, many individuals did show sensitivity to different drugs, such as quinine, coal tars, aspirin, and iodides. According to Landsteiner, these drugs were considered haptens and caused a reaction by combination with the plasma proteins. During these times many different methods of testing were tried to determine these sensitivities and were found useless except for the method of trial and error. Since the advent of antibiotics and the increase in sensitivity reactions, this has become a more serious problem. Luckily, most of these reactions were of the delayed type that, although annoying and troublesome, had almost no mortality. Recently, however, up to 40 cases of true anaphylactic shock from the use of penicillin have been reported by different authors, with a high mortality rate. Until

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