ABSTRACT
Irritation, particularly from stoma effl uent, is the commonest cause of peristomal skin problems (1) . Allergy, in contrast, is one of the rarer causes. Both of these conditions, although pathologically distinct, can produce similar peristomal rashes and, for this reason, they are covered together. Furthermore, most patients and many health professionals have popularly regarded allergy as the likeliest cause of peristomal dermatoses. This myth is fostered by the number of individual case reports in the medical literature describing contact allergy to components of stoma appliances or their accessories. The consequence of this presumption is that many patients try several changes of appliance type in an attempt to identify the “allergenic” ones, a process that can result in costly wastage of unused batches of materials.
