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Screening for penicillin allergy in obstetric patients to optimize guideline directed therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2025

Kayla Godfrey
Affiliation:
University of Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, IA, USA
Deanna McDanel*
Affiliation:
University of Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, IA, USAUniversity of Iowa College of Pharmacy, Iowa City, IA, USA
Kelly Percival
Affiliation:
University of Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, IA, USA
Noelle Bowdler
Affiliation:
University of Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, IA, USAUniversity of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, USA
Donna Santillan
Affiliation:
University of Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, IA, USAUniversity of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, USA
Amy Dowden
Affiliation:
University of Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, IA, USAUniversity of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, USA
*
Corresponding author: Deanna McDanel; Email: deanna-mcdanel@uiowa.edu

Abstract

Objective:

To assess the safety of penicillin allergy evaluation and testing in obstetric patients utilizing oral drug challenges with or without prior penicillin skin testing (PST) depending on characteristics of the patient’s medication reaction, and to determine whether removal of the drug allergy label led to an increased use of guideline-recommended antibiotic prophylaxis for group B Streptococcus (GBS).

Design and Setting:

This retrospective cohort study evaluated obstetric patients cared for at the University of Iowa Health Care who were identified as having a penicillin allergy label between June 1, 2021 and July 1, 2023.

Patients:

A total of 728 patients were identified to have a penicillin allergy and 299 patients were seen in the drug allergy clinic (DAC) for allergy evaluation.

Results:

Of patients seen in the DAC for allergy evaluation, 270 (90.3%) had their allergy de-labeled after undergoing an oral drug challenge with or without PST. No patients experienced an IgE-mediated anaphylactic reaction to an oral drug challenge. Patients received penicillin G more often for GBS prophylaxis during labor when they had their drug allergy removed in the DAC compared to those who were not seen for allergy evaluation (87.5% vs 24.5%, P < 0.001).

Conclusions:

This study supports the safety of drug allergy testing in obstetric patients. Most patients are appropriate candidates for a direct oral challenge only or PST followed by an oral challenge. Identifying and testing penicillin allergic obstetric patients prior to delivery resulted in an increase in use of first-line guideline-recommended antibiotic prophylaxis for GBS during labor.

Information

Type
Original Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that no alterations are made and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use and/or adaptation of the article.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Figure 0

Figure 1.Best Practice Advisory. The best practice advisory (BPA) created at our institution to alert obstetric staff of a pregnant patient’s penicillin allergy.

Figure 1

Table 1.Demographics

Figure 2

Table 2.Allergy information for those seen in drug allergy clinic

Figure 3

Figure 2.Testing done in the drug allergy clinic. Testing completed during drug allergy evaluation. PST: Penicillin Skin Testing.

Figure 4

Table 3.Reason patient was seen but not de-labeled (n = 29)

Figure 5

Table 4.Patients with positive oral challenge or penicillin skin testing results

Figure 6

Figure 3.Antibiotic use. The antibiotic used for GBS prophylaxis during delivery.

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