Severe cutaneous adverse reactions to drugs: from patients to the national office for compensation of medical accidents.

BACKGROUND

Administrative bodies for compensating medical accidents were created in France in 2002.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the knowledge patients with severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs) have of procedures and to compare the rate of compensation for SCARs for France and for our referral center.

METHODS

A questionnaire was sent to 247 patients of our SCARs referral center and 225 patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis from the patient association AMALYSTE. We calculated the rate of compensation for France and our center.

RESULTS

Among the 123 respondents (26%), 28 (23%) knew the compensation procedure; 13 (11%) had received compensation. The Commission of Conciliation and Compensation had received 63 applications for SCARs since 2002 and proposed compensation for 56%. The estimated rate of compensation for France was 2.6% and 2.5% for our referral center (p = 0.9).

CONCLUSIONS

The procedure of compensation for SCARs is misunderstood. Better information should be disseminated for patients with threshold disability conditions.