Emergencies in dermatoallergology.

Some skin diseases require an emergency medical intervention. This is obvio usly the case with several rare but life-threatening diseases including ang ioedema, anaphylaxis, acute drug reactions with blisters, pustules, or inte rnal involvement, such as 'hypersensitivity syndrome'/DRESS, or Kaposi-Juli usberg syndrome. More frequently patients are seeking emergency advice for an acute skin condition often accompanied by fever that looks dramatic to t hem, their relatives and general practitioner. This is the case of acute ur ticaria and acute contact dermatitis, especially on the face. For each of t he above diseases, excluding urticaria, we will discuss the clinical presen tation, the main differential diagnoses, the laboratory examinations that m ay be useful in emergencies and the principles of management. (C) 2001 Edit ions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.