This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

R. Brian Smith, MD; H. Douglas, MD; J. Petruscak, MD
Pittsburgh

JAMA. 1972;222(10):1312.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The recent article entitled "Sudden Appearance of Cardiac Arrhythmias" by Schmidt et al¹ brought to our attention that one of the preservatives in dexamethasone (Decadron) is methylparaben.

Methyl and propyl parabens are used extensively as preservatives in local anesthetics and parenteral penicillin preparations. These drugs can cause hypersensitivity reactions.

Paraben allergies have already been cited as a cause of intractable dermatitis by Schorr.² A possible cross-sensitivity between the parabens, which are derivatives of parahydroxybenzoic acid, and structurally related procaine has been postulated by deJong.³

This raises the question of choice of steroid preparation that should be used for the treatment of hypersensitivity reactions. Many injectable preparations of steroids contain parabens and it would seem advisable to select one that does not.

If a hypersensitivity reaction is due to a preservative, then addition of more of this preservative with a steroid would be inappropriate. Perhaps . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?