ABSTRACT
Contact urticaria is a skin disease with an increasing importance. The usefulness
of products made from natural rubber latex has caused an increase in allergic
(immunologic) contact urticaria, often causing occupational disability. Other
forms of contact urticaria continue to be rather common. The symptoms
experienced in contact urticaria range from local tingling to systemic anaphy-
laxis. The common factor in urticaria is the release of inflammatory mediators
from cutaneous mast cells, which causes pruritus and swelling of the skin tissue.
