Our understanding of the details of the recovery time of acute irritan
t contact dermatitis (ICD) is limited. We examined skin reactivity to
a model surfactant, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), on previous acute ICD
and normal sites over time with visual grading and noninvasive instru
ments. Acute ICD was induced on the upper arms of 18 volunteers (aged
30 to 51 years) by occluded application of 1% SLS for 24 h. Previous I
CD and normal sites were provoked by occluded application of 2% or 7.5
% SLS 30 min daily 4 consecutive days. Skin reactivity was assessed da
ily by visual erythema scoring (VES), transepidermal water loss (TEWL)
, skin color reflectance (SCR) and electrical capacitance (EC). Skin f
unction of previous ICD sites assessed by VES, TEWL, SCR. and EC did n
ot normalize until 2 weeks later; all parameters of previous ICD retur
ned to normal after 3 weeks. While skin reactivity to 2% and 7.5% SLS
showed no differences between previous ICD and normal sites at 4 weeks
, differences of irritant reactivity especially 7.5% SLS between previ
ous ICD and normal sites were significant at 3 weeks post-provocation.
Our results demonstrate that irritation evaluated with irritant provo
cation was long-lasting, even though skin functional parameters assess
ed by various bioengineering instruments returned to normal. Complete
recovery of skin function including irritability after acute ICD induc
ed by 1% SLS was achieved approximately 4 weeks later. The date were g
enerated with a model surfactant; it remains to be determined whether
similar responses will be noted with chemicals of different physicoche
mical properties. (C) Munksgaard, 1997.