Mucocutaneous complications of chemotherapy in 74 patients from Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital.

BACKGROUND

There have been many reports about mucocutaneous complications of chemotherapy from western countries, but they are only small case series. Until now, there had been no such report in Thailand.

OBJECTIVE

We assessed mucocutaneous complications in patients who received chemotherapy.

PATIENTS AND METHOD: A total of 74 patients, admitted for chemotherapy from October 2001 to January 2002 in the Internal Medicine Department, Maharaj Nakhon Chiang Mai Hospital, were studied.

RESULTS

Of 74 patients (53 male and 21 female), we found a statistically significant relation between gemcitabine and alopecia (p = .020), bleomycin and hyperpigmentation (p = .030), and cytarabine and ichthyosis (< .001). The most common findings were alopecia (76.68%), hyperpigmentation (31.08%), transverse white bands of the nails (22.97%), and ichthyosis (20.27%). Other notable findings included oral mucositis, acne, acral erythema, flushing, onycholysis, urticaria, pruritus, phlebitis and cutaneous infections (including tinea corporis, tinea ungium, and warts).

CONCLUSION

Mucocutaneous complications are common in patients who have received chemotherapy. However, a further study with a larger sample size and specified chemotherapy regimen would be valuable.