Treatment of anthracycline extravasation with dexrazoxane -- clinical experience

BACKGROUND: Accidental extravasation is a severe complication when administering anthracyclines. We describe 3 cases of extravasation with 3 different anthracyclines. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One patient came from another hospital for a second opinion after an epirubicin extravasation. Only surgical debridement of the necrotic tissue was possible. The other two extravasations occurred during treatment with doxorubicin and doxorubicin- EMCH, respectively, in our department. Both patients were treated with dexrazoxane within 6 h of the event. RESULTS: The 2 patients treated with dexrazoxane recovered completely without any sequelae. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of antracycline extravasation with dexrazoxane is potentially useful and safe.