Urticaria is an acute, itchy, recurrent and recurrent skin reaction with wheal-like lesions of varying size, such as reddish, swollen, rounded plaques. On the other hand, when urticaria affects areas of lax skin, such as eyelids or scrotum, they form what is called angioneurotic edema.
Urticaria usually presents with transient lesions that vary in shape and location, and may be accompanied by fever. There are two types of urticaria: acute urticaria and chronic urticaria.
Acute urticaria is usually caused by an allergy.
Acute urticaria is usually due to a state of allergy due to external contact (plants or insects) or internal contact (parasites, food or medication). In these cases it is always very important to take a good clinical history by the dermatology specialist in order to establish the cause-effect that has caused it.
If a drug is the triggering factor, the most common drugs that can cause it are sulfonamides, anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics.
The treatment of acute urticaria involves avoiding the cause and, depending on the severity of the symptoms, in addition to oral antihistamines (never topically), establishing a course of oral or parenteral cortisone.
Chronic and relapsing urticaria is currently considered to be a skin disease in people who are prone and sensitive (with elevated lgE, eosinophilia, etc.). However, it is important to always rule out other causes of urticaria, such as hydatid cyst, parasites in the stool, autoimmune processes or association with thyroiditis. Therefore, its study should always be accompanied by a complete laboratory work-up.
On the other hand, there are rare forms of chronic urticaria in children that present in the so-called autoinflammatory syndromes, which present with chronic fever and joint involvement.
In the treatment of chronic urticaria, some dietary recommendations should be taken into account, since in some cases they can perpetuate the urticaria, especially some condiments, precooked or packaged foods, or those that come in cans with preservatives. Also some bottled drinks containing preservatives or colorants (tartazin) and, in general, yellow foods.
As medication, antihistamines of different types are advised and corticotherapy guidelines are rarely needed. In some severe cases a biologic drug will be used.