Patch testing with alkyl glucosides: concomitant reactions are common but not ubiquitous

Background

Alkyl glucosides are a family of mild surfactants that are increasingly used in a wide range of cosmetics and household products. Contact allergy to alkyl glucosides may be more frequent than previously suspected, especially in atopic patients.

Objectives

To investigate the frequency of contact allergy to alkyl glucosides and to identify concomitant reactivity.

Patients/Methods

We retrospectively reviewed all cases of suspected allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) in which patients were either patch tested with a cosmetic series that includes five alkyl glucosides (decyl glucoside, lauryl glucoside, coco glucoside, cetearyl glucoside, caprylyl/capryl glucoside) or a specific alkyl glucoside series from November 2013 to April 2017 in two UK centres.

Results

A total of 5775 patients were patch tested across the two centres. Twenty‐nine (1.04%) of the 2796 patients tested to the cosmetic/alkyl glucoside series had a positive patch test reaction to at least one of the alkyl glucosides. Twenty three (79.3%) were sensitised to multiple alkyl glucosides; 21 patients (72.4%) were female. The mean age was 43.5 years. Twelve patients (41.4%) had a background of atopic dermatitis.

Conclusions

The prevalence of alkyl glucoside‐induced ACD is relatively high and there are frequent concomitant reactions between different alkyl glucosides. We recommend the inclusion of alkyl glucosides in all cosmetic series.

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