Rosacea-like Dermatitis and Patch Testing with Topical Agents

139 patients with rosacea like dermatitis were investigated on their age of onset, causative topical corticosteroids, patch testing with their cosmetics and standard allergens as well as topical steroidal and nonsteroidal agents, treatment, and clinical course. We came to the conclusions as follows: 1. To identify allergic contact dermatitis that has motivated to use topical corticosteroids is an important guide to treatment since 52 of 70 (72.2%) patch tested patients reacted positively to their cosmetics and 69.4% of them had allergic reactions to some of the standard allergens. 2. Satisfactory prognosis could be gained without admission if appropriate treatment and good control of environmental worsening factors were achieved. 3. As the results of patch testing with topical nonsteroidal agents, there seemed to be some problems left about their qualities of irritation. Therefore predictive patch testing is recommended before applying nonsteroidal agents to rosacea-like dermatitis not to involve any irritant or allergic reaction.