Depigmented contact dermatitis due to incense

Abstract

A 63-year-old male school teacher with itchy depigmented macules on his left dorsum manus, left shoulder and abdomen presented at our clinic on 8 July 1986. He had practiced the incense ceremony for about 15 years, and had burnt several incenses and sandalwood. 48 h closed patch testing revealed perfume in the incenses was the cause. We assumed that perfume in the incense was volatized in air when incense was burnt; skin surface contact occurred with airborne particle, which dissolved in sebum; thus allergic contact dermatitis accompanied by depigmentation might arise.