Reactions 1178 - 17 Nov 2007

Aloe vera

Allergic contact dermatitis in an elderly patient:case report

A 72-year-old woman developed allergic contact dermatitisduring application of aloe vera leaf juice.

The woman presented with a 3-month history of pruriginouserythema of her legs, followed by intense pruritus, erythemaand desquamation of her eyelids. Shortly before, she hadstarted applying self home-made aloe vera leaf juice over herlegs for chronic peripheral venous insufficiency [dosage andduration of therapy to reaction onset not stated].

Patch testing revealed positive (++) reactions on day 3 toaloe jelly ’as is’ and aloe pulvis ’as is’. She also had a positive(+) reaction to nickel sulfate on day 3. The woman wasstrongly dissuaded from further application of aloe vera. Shereceived hydrocortisone cream for her eyelids andmethylprednisolone aceponate ointment for her legs. Herlesions gradually improved. In 2 weeks, they had totallyresolved. Over an 8-month follow-up period, they did notrecur.Ferreira M, et al. Allergic contact dermatitis to aloe vera. Contact Dermatitis 57:278-279, No. 4, Oct 2007 - Portugal 801097284

1

Reactions 17 Nov 2007 No. 11780114-9954/10/1178-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved