[Incidence of allergy to eyedrops. Results of a prospective survey in a hospital milieu].

An estimation of the frequency of allergic contact reactions to eyedrops was obtained by means of a prospective study on hospitalized patients. The incidence of cases with a positive patch test was 6% during hospital care. The drugs blamed were atropine (allergic contact reaction in 3% of treated patients), phenylephrine (risk 2.6%) and neomycin (risk 1.7%). The preservatives were not involved in any case. More than half of the patients had a previous history of eyedrop contact allergy, but they only rarely knew which drug was involved. The systematic use of patch tests to identify the allergenic drug(s), the accurate information of the patient and the parcimonious use of allergenic drugs, particularly of antibiotic eyedrops, are simple measures which should decrease notably the incidence of allergic contact reactions.