IDIOSYNCRASY TO HEXYLRESORCINOL

Abstract

The unusual severity of the manifestation of an acquired sensitivity to hexylresorcinol warrants the report of this case. Idiosyncrasy to hexylresorcinol has been described by Templeton and Lunsford1and by Cummer.2 REPORT OF CASE History. —An American woman, aged 57, a housewife, scratched the dorsum of her left hand on a jagged piece of glass protruding from the frame of a broken window. A wet dressing of hexylresorcinol solution was applied for approximately thirty minutes, and the injury was dismissed as trivial. Twenty-four hours later the area moistened by the dressing began to itch and burn, and the skin about the scratch became red and swollen. Vesicles formed in the center of the lesion during the following day. As the lesion spread, the vesicles coalesced to form large blebs. Itching and burning sensations were supplanted by a dull throbbing ache. Three days following the original injury