A Patient-Centered Guide to Hidradenitis Suppurativa Flare Prevention.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic debilitating skin disease characterized by painful dermal abscesses, subcutaneous inflammatory nodules, draining sinuses and hypertrophic scars. Prompt recognition and management of the disease is of the utmost importance as prolonged disease can have long-standing physical and psychological consequences. Quality of life and symptom improvement are viable outcomes from preventative interventions in patients with HS.

Art of Prevention: Essential Oils - Natural Products Not Necessarily Safe.

Aromatherapy is defined as the use of essential oils, through inhalation or direct application to the skin, to achieve physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being. It has become an increasingly popular trend in modern-day holistic approaches to health care. Essential oils are thought to be natural and pure products, some of the most common being lavender, tea tree, peppermint, and ylang-ylang.

Art of prevention: Practical interventions in lip-licking dermatitis.

Dry, cracked lips are a common occurrence in both cold winter months and arid climates, leading many patients to experience discomfort year-round. Lip-licking is a compensatory measure that perpetuates the condition and often leads to lip-licking dermatitis. In patients in whom this compensatory measure becomes a chronic habit, other sequelae such as irritant contact dermatitis, cheilitis simplex, angular cheilitis, factitial cheilitis, secondary infections, and exfoliative cheilitis can arise.

Common Allergens and Considerations When Performing Pediatric Patch Testing.

Pediatric allergic contact dermatitis (Ped-ACD) is an increasingly recognized highly prevalent skin disease that has a significant impact on the quality of life of patients and their families. Accurate and appropriate patch testing is vital to diagnosing Ped-ACD. This requires knowledge of the most common allergens in the pediatric population, consideration of concurrent diseases that can complicate the clinical picture, and potential modification of techniques to lessen exposure to irritants and sensitizers while obtaining true positive results.