RECENTLY, a study has been made of a patient with a chronic, recurrent vesiculobullous dermatitis of the hands. The eruption flared dramatically when cigarette or pipe tobaccos were smoked and involuted following the cessation of smoking. There was a strongly positive, immediate, wheal-like reaction to an intradermal test with tobacco extract, a positive reaction to a passive-transfer test and negative reaction to patch tests with tobacco on the previously involuted sites. This type of eruption in response to tobacco smoke is apparently unique and is the subject of this report.
Report of a Case
A 35-year-old white man, a printer, was first seen on May 29, 1964, because of a severe, secondarily infected, chronic vesiculobullous dermatitis of the fingers and palmer and dorsal aspects of the hands, and a few vesicular lesions that had recently appeared on the soles. He had been troubled with moderate hay fever for some years,