ABSTRACT
Topical drugs that have been reported to cause immediate contact reactions (contact urticaria) are shown in table 5.1. The entire spectrum of symptoms and signs of the contact urticaria syndrome can result from reactions to drugs including erythema and wealing, localized urticaria, generalized urticaria, gastrointestinal symptoms, pulmonary symptoms, drop in blood pressure, and anaphylactic shock (12,83). Not included are cases where drugs applied to non-intact skin (e.g. leg ulcers) caused signs of immediate-type hypersensitivity (e.g. anaphylactic shock) without local contact urticaria, and where the diagnosis was made by scratch, prick or intradermal tests (e.g. refs. 59,60,61). In other words, the occurrence of contact urticaria from local application to intact skin, either in the clinical or the diagnostic setting, is a prerequisite for topical drugs to be included in table 5.1 The references provided are or may be examples of cases of immediate contact reactions, that the author came across while writing this book; a full literature review was not attempted.
