Contact dermatitis in children: a 16-year study of 396 children

Abstract

Background: Contact dermatitis in continuing to be increasingly recognized in pediatric populations, especially in those with atopic dispositions. Exposures in children parallel those seen in adult populations. In fact, as post university career jobs are becoming more difficult to acquire, in many countries youngsters are once again entering apprenticeships to obtain immediate economic remuneration. These apprenticeships come with occupational exposures to allergens. Objectives: To review the most common sensitizers in children and to evaluate the changing tendencies of occupational dermatitis in children. Patients/Materials/Methods: For 16 years, we patch tested 12,719 patients. Of these, 396 (3.11%) were children younger than 16 years old. All children were patch tested with the standard GEIDAC (Spanish Contact Dermatitis Group) test series, or with the standard True-test series. In addition, some of them were tested with specific allergens with additional supplemental allergens as warranted by history Results: Among these 396 patch tested children, 119 (30%) were positive to one or more allergens, 73 girls (61%) and 46 boys (39%). The most common allergens were nickel sulfate, cobalt chloride and mercury ammonium chloride. A second group Additional top allergens included the components of rubber accelerators, potassium dichromate, fragrance mix and 4-phenylenediamine base, para-tertiary butylphenol (PTBP) formaldehyde and isothiazolinone, wool alcohols, Myroxylon pereirae. colophony, colophonium [if you are going to use INCI names for M.p. would be consistent] formaldehyde and Nisopropylphenyl- paraphenylenediamine (IPPD). Conclusions: There was a significant incidence [20%] of our cases was which were related to their job as apprentices. This percentage is much higher than what has been reported in other publications.