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. 2025 Aug 27;51(1):264.
doi: 10.1186/s13052-025-02106-4.

A survey of current management practices for delayed maculopapular exanthemas during antibiotic treatment among primary care pediatricians

Lucia Liotti  1 , Annamaria Bianchi  2 , Giuseppe Crisafulli  3 , Silvia Caimmi  4 , Paolo Bottau  5 , Fabrizio Franceschini  6 , Rocco Luigi Valluzzi  7 , Sara Riscassi  8 , Francesca Saretta  9 , Michele Miraglia Del Giudice  10 , Carlo Caffarelli  11 , Francesca Mori  12
Affiliations

A survey of current management practices for delayed maculopapular exanthemas during antibiotic treatment among primary care pediatricians

Lucia Liotti et al. Ital J Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Several guidelines recommended how to manage delayed maculopapular exanthemas during antibiotic treatment. The aim of the present survey was to assess knowledge gaps of primary care pediatricians in managing children with delayed maculopapular exanthemas during a course of antibiotics.

Methods: We conducted an online survey among primary care pediatricians in Italy, focusing on the management of children with maculopapular exanthemas occurring during antibiotic administration.

Results: We found that 41% of pediatricians continued with the same antibiotic after the onset of mild to moderate maculopapular exanthemas. Additionally, only 25% took pictures of the skin manifestations during the acute phase, and 66% recorded the latency of the reaction.

Conclusions: Primary care management of children with suspected antibiotic induced maculopapular exanthemas is heterogeneous. Primary care physicians and allergists need to share common decisions and protocols to avoid mislabelling children as allergic to antibiotics.

Keywords: Antibiotics allergy; Children; Drug allergy; Drug hypersensitivity reaction; Maculopapular exanthemas.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Nor Ethical Committee Approval neither primary care pediatrician consent was required as this is not an epidemiological study and personal data were not collected. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: Carlo Caffarelli is senior Editor of Italian Journal of Pediatrics. The Authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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