Perioral dermatitis.

Forty-three patients with perioral dermatitis are described. In seven patients, this eruption was associated with the use of hydrocortisone butyrate (Locoid) alone, and this topical steroid can no longer be recommended unreservedly for use on the face. In fifteen other patients, medication was undertaken without medical advice. The time may have come to print on tubes of potent local steroids warnings about the hazards of long-term use on the face without medical advice. Drug companies and pharmacists could also help by asking patients to discard any partially-used tubes of ointment and an expiry date stamped prominently on the tubes rather than on the cardboard container may help. Continuing medical education is obviously still required to prevent a minority of family doctors prescribing wrongly for their patients.