Further to Professor Jason Trubiano’s instructive post last year concerning penicillin allergy and its risks of recurrence,  here is the HNE approach to using the PEN_fast score (that his team developed and validated). This approach is increasingly used across Australia and the world to screen patients and determine whether an allergy alert can be safely removed.  It is worth remembering that patient’s with an antibiotic “allergy” are frequently given less active second line agents and have a measurably poorer response to treatment.  It is therefore critical to consider the validity of the patient’s allergy label.   [stay tuned for a companion tool to evaluate cephalosporin allergy].

HNELHD_CP_24_12_Antimicrobial_Allergy_De-Labelling_Procedure_-_Penicillins

Reference

Su, Trubiano, Kwah et al.  JAMA Intern Med 2023: 183: 883-5.  Evaluating the PEN-FAST Clinical Decision-making Tool to Enhance Penicillin Allergy Delabeling.