Routine patch testing with paraben esters

Paraben esters are the most widely used preservatives in cosmetics and topical medicaments. Their sensitization potential is low, based on both experimental and human experience. A paraben mixture is included in the ICDRG standard series, and in patch test studies, approximately 1% of eczema patients react to it. The present study confirms this frequency in 8020 patients patch tested consecutively. Testing with the individual paraben esters was employed as confirmation, which makes it unlikely that the excited skin syndrome is a significant problem in this context. It remains undetermined whether the present paraben mixture is the optimal patch test material for diagnosing paraben sensitivity.