Antibiotic therapy in the allergic patient.

A variety of antimicrobial classes are now available. Thus, a careful history and skin testing for hypersensitivity reactions are often not done. It is often easier to give an alternative agent rather than to determine if the person does indeed have a hypersensitivity reaction to a particular drug. There remain situations (e.g., enterococcal endocarditis, neurosyphilis, syphilis in pregnant women), however, in which options for appropriate therapy are limited. In this setting, an accurate history accompanied by appropriate skin testing and desensitization is indicated.