Een zeventienjarige jongen met het syndroom van Stevens-Johnson na een marinekamp

A 17-year-old patient requested an urgent consultation at the dermatology department for painful vesicles in the mouth, which had appeared two days before and were spreading to the rest of his body. The patient was tired and had just returned from two succeeding summer camps. He was known to have oral herpes simplex from time to time. The diagnosis was unclear at the first presentation as the lesions were varicella-like. The following day, target lesions and bullae appeared, suggestive for the Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS). At a navy camp thirteen days before the consultation, the patient had used three suppositories for sea sickness containing scopolamine, a rare but possible cause of SJS. This case of SJS occurred in a patient with fatigue and high herpes simplex titers. A supportive care treatment was administered. The patient could be discharged after fifteen days. In conclusion, as the initial presentation of SJS can be misleading, a close follow-up and detailed history-taking are required. This should include questioning for self-administered and compounded pharmaceuticals