Comparison late cutaneous complications between exposure to sulfur mustard and nerve agents.

Background: Iraq used chemical weapons against thousands of Iranian militaries and civilians. This study aimed to compare the chronic cutaneous side effects of exposure to sulfur mustard (SM) with nerve agents (NA).

Methods: The study enrolled 154 SM exposed cases and 175 (NA) exposed cases. Presence of any late cutaneous manifestations was evaluated by a dermatologist via prior history of acute cutaneous complications extracted from medical achieves.

Results: only 18.1% mustard exposed group was asymptomatic compared to 62.4% nerve agent exposures. Mustard and non-mustard scars, intertrigo, xerosis, cherry angioma, hyper pigmentation, pilar keratosis, poikiloderma, and malignant tumors were significantly more frequent in mustard exposed patients (p < 0.05). Nerve agent exposed patients experienced significantly more frequent occurrence of acne a seborrheic dermatitis and tinea versicolor.

Conclusions: Mustard induced dermaltologic lesions were more common and specific than (NA) skin injuries. (NA) cause few psychocutaneous disorders like acne and seborrheic dermatitis in addition to psychological stress disorders.