A clinico-epidemiological study on urticaria cases in various tertiary care hospitals affiliated to a medical college in Mangalore, India

BACKGROUND: Urticaria affects one in every five persons in the population. OBJECTIVES: This study was done to study the risk factors, clinical presentation, and management practices among patients with urticaria. METHODS: Information from the medical case records of confirmed cases of urticaria at a government and private tertiary care hospital over the recent 4 years were recorded in a semi-structured pro forma. RESULTS: Mean age of 115 patients was 31.2 ± 20.7 years. Majority of patients (69, 60%) had acute urticaria. The most common risk factors of urticaria in this study were allergy to food substances (27, 23.5%) and allergy to medications (18, 15.6%), followed by insect bites (16, 13.9%). Family history of urticaria was present in 8 (7%) patients. The most common symptom in urticaria was pruritus (68, 59.1%) and the most common sign was hives (40, 34.8%). Lesions were present all over the body in 52 (45.2%) and were bilateral in distribution in 59 (51.3%) patients. Sixty-eight (59.1%) and 69 (60%) urticaria patients were prescribed nonsedating and second-generation antihistamine (sgAH) drugs, respectively. Among chronic urticaria (CU) cases, 35 (76.1%) each received nonsedating and sgAH. Systemic steroids and topical steroid creams were prescribed in 21 (18.3%) and 7 (6.1%) urticaria patients, respectively. Mean duration of application of the topical steroid creams was 10 ± 4.8 days. Leukotriene antagonists were used in the management of greater proportion of patients (54.5%) with dermographism in comparison to 16.1% without dermographism (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The study reported few important risk factors and certain common clinical presentation in urticaria. Second-generation nonsedating type of antihistamine drugs was the most preferred drug for the management of urticaria.