A 60-year-old cancer patient developed a black, hairy tongue as a side effect of an antibiotic that was prescribed to her to counter a few of the effects of chemotherapy.

The patient was taking minocycline, a prescription medication commonly used to treat various bacterial infections, including urinary tract infections, skin infections, severe pimples, tick fever and chlamydia. It’s also given to patients with gonorrhea and syphilis and people who are allergic to penicillin.

The drug has its own array of complications, including blood within the urine or stools, blurred or double vision, hives, itching, or skin rash, sores and ulcers in lots of body regions. Nonetheless, what the lady suffered is an unusual but known side effect of minocycline.

In keeping with a report published within the British Medical Journal Case Reports, the lady was taking minocycline to forestall skin lesions attributable to chemotherapy. After a while, she developed dark patches on her face and a black, hairy tongue – a condition called drug-induced hyperpigmentation and black hairy tongue. Her tongue was covered in patches that were brownish-black in appearance and caused pain.

Doctors said the grey patches on her face were one other potential side effect of the antibiotic. Her symptoms improved when she stopped taking the medication.

What’s the science behind the condition?

Black hairy tongue (BHT) is a condition where the filiform papillae (thread-like structure on the tongue’s surface) turn out to be elongated and hypertrophied, leading to black or brown discoloration, which can cover 3% to fifteen% of the tongue’s surface area.

To treat the minocycline-induced skin pigmentation, the lady underwent a trifluridine and tipiracil hydrochloride plus bevacizumab combination therapy, the report said. She was back to normal in six weeks.

The condition is not typically harmful but is an indication that an individual has poor oral health. The medics were sure that minocycline was guilty on this case.

The girl was battling rectal cancer and was placed on chemotherapy 14 months earlier. Minocycline was prescribed to her after she developed skin lesions as a side effect of the chemotherapy.

Capsule
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Published by Medicaldaily.com