Acute mucocutaneous and systemic adverse effects of Etretinate

Abstract

This cross sectional study was carried out between 1993 to 1998 at Razi Skin Hospital, the affiliated Dermatology Department of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Eight hundred patients receiving etretinate for various skin diseases took part in this study. Among them, 457 patients with first admission to dermatologic clinic who had at least four regular sequential visits and responding to our questionnaire were selected to enter the study for evaluating acute toxicity of etretinate. Cheilitis with a frequency of 88 percent was the most frequent side effect. Hair loss (22.97%), dry mouth with thirst (15.09%), dryness of mucous membranes (13.12%), xerosis with pruritus (11.15%), nose bleeding (8.31%), paronychia (5.47%), facial dermatitis (3.06%), conjunctivitis (2.84%) and in addition to mucocutaneous ones, chills (2.63%), headache (2.19%), mental depression (2.19%), urinary frequency (1.53%) and papilledema (0.44%) were among the other observed toxicities, The relationship between mucocutaneous side effect with dosage of etretinate, sex and, age of the patients was evaluated. The association between mucoctaneous toxicities and sex was significant, sex and, age of the patients was evaluated. The association between mucocutaneous toxicities and sex was significant (P<0.05). We observed four rare side effect in the patients including hair color lightening appering as whitening or blondness, hair waving, dyspareunia and gynecomastia. In conclusion, females were more to acute mucocutaneous toxicities of etretinate.