Old but not forgotten: Antibiotic allergies in General Medicine (the AGM Study)

Objectives: To determine the nature, prevalence and description accuracy of recorded antibiotic allergy labels (AALs) in a cohort of general medical inpatients, and to assess the feasibility of an oral antibiotic re‐challenge study. Design: Multicentre cross‐sectional study. Setting and participants: All patients admitted to the general medical units of Austin Health and Alfred Health, 18 May – 5 June 2015. Main outcome measures: Baseline demographics, medical and allergy history, infection diagnoses and antibiotic prescribing data for general medical inpatients were collected. A questionnaire was administered to clarify AAL history, followed by correlation of responses with electronic and admissions record descriptions. A hypothetical oral re‐challenge in a supervised setting was offered to patients with low risk allergy phenotypes (non‐immediate reaction, non‐severe cutaneous adverse reaction, or unknown reaction more than 10 years ago). Results: Of the 453 inpatients, 107 (24%) had an AAL (median age, 82 years; interquartile range, 74–87 years); 160 individual AALs were recorded, and there was a mismatch in AAL description between recording platforms in 25% of cases. Most patients with an AAL were women (64%; P