Baboon Syndrome

    

'Baboon Syndrome': An Unusual Complication of Antibiotics

                                                               

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Baboon syndrome is a rare rash that appears on the buttocks, but can also appear in the armpits.

                                                                          

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A 40-year-old man with a sore throat and fever was diagnosed with tonsillitis, and was prescribed penicillin, a common antibiotic. But several days later, the man developed a rash over his armpits, groin and buttocks — an unusual condition known as "baboon syndrome."

The condition, more formally called symmetrical drug-related intertriginous and flexural exanthema (SDRIFE), is known as baboon syndrome because the rash on the patient's buttocks resembles the red hindquarters of some monkeys.

Because doctors often prescribe penicillin antibiotics to treat tonsillitis and other bacterial infections, it is important to be aware that baboon syndrome is one of the medication's possible side effects, wrote the researchers who reported the man's case online Nov. 28 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

The condition is usually caused by an allergic reaction to penicillin drugs, but can also be caused by exposure to mercury or nickel, said Dr. Andreas Bircher, a dermatologist at University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland. (He was not involved in the study but has reported other cases of baboon syndrome.)

In the present case, during the man's initial examination, he had enlarged and inflamed tonsils, according to the physicians at the NHS Lothian hospital in the United Kingdom who reported the case. His regular doctor had prescribed penicillin for him two days earlier, but the patient became unable to swallow