Allergologic aspects of skin-cleansing products

A review of the international literature and our patch test-results in 4637 patients with contact dermatitis and in 140 persons with a proven formaldehyde-allergy revealed: Skin-cleansing products may contain a lot of ingredients which are known as allergens in single cases or-more accidentally - in limited epidemic outbreaks of contact dermatitis, but compared with the enormous amount of their worldwide application the incidence of allergic side-effects is low. They are much more important (in 14% of our patients with contact dermatitis) as an irritant co-factor for sensitization due to other allergens.