Contact allergy investigations in patients with leg ulcers (359 cases).

Introduction. Leg ulcers are a common disease in dermatology. Their social and economic implications are important, especially when contact dermatitis complicates these wounds. Patients and methods. In this study a total of 359 patients had contact der matitis investigations over a period of 5 years. Patch-tests were performed on 116 men and 243 women hospitalized with venous and/or arterial leg ulce rs, with or without clinical appearence of periulcerous contact dermatitis. Standard patch-tests of the ICDRG (International Contact Dermatitis Resear ch Group) were systematically performed as well as a specific series of 40 tests. Results and discusion. Positive patch tests were observed in 82,5 p. 100 of the patients, indicating a very high rate of contact allergy in patients w ith leg ulcers. Peru balsam, lanolin and neomycin were the most frequent cu lprits of positive patch-tests in this population. Five percent of patch-re sts with eosin were positive in our study. This;is not common in the litera ture. Moreover, we highlight the high rate of contact sensitization to cort icosteroids in this population. According to these results and to the liter ature, a new series of patch-tests for leg ulcers is suggested. Conclusion. Polysensitization in patients with chronic wounds is very Frequ ent. A series of patch-tests in leg ulcers may lead to some interesting con clusions but a good questioning of the patient is always necessary to compl ete this series.