Editorial: Toxic epidermal necrolysis, the most dreadful of all SCARs

The term severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs) was coined to, predominantly, include Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS)/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), drug rash with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome (DRESS) and acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP). Of all these TEN continues to remain the most feared idiosyncratic complication of a myriad of drugs. Its evolution from SJS, commencement de novo, the relative ignorance about its exact pathogenesis entailing a paucity of an effective remedy, associated mortality of the order of 40 to 50%, as well as its short and long term sequelae in survivors has continued to wreak havoc in the most illustrious of minds. Fortunately, it remains a rare disease with an incidence around 1 to 2 cases per million population per annum.