Hello 99ers,

i heard about a investigation regarding colophonium as a source of allergies in premature babies and for that reason is no longer recommended for use in premature babies. This colophonium is a natural resin which is an ingredient in patches diapers and hydrocolloids.

Has anyone experienced or heard of allergic reactions to varihesive or comfeel or other hydrocolloids? If so, have you banned these products from your unit?

We have some hydrocolloids (for securing UAC`s & UAV`s) that are colophonium free, that`s what the manufacturer told us, but so far i haven`t heard of other hydrocolloid products especially for wound care that are free from this substance.

We`re quite unsure if we can continue to use the hydrocolloids to protect our preemies noses from skin breakdown due to NCPAP, so i would be curious to know if anyone can give me more detailed informations about this matter.

thank you in advance

Cheers Norbert

Hi Norbert!

We commonly use DuoDerm (against pressure of cpap-prongs, enteral feeding tubes etc). We are now exploring exactly which products we have in stock so to speak, since some of Convatecs products appearantly contain colophonium.

Do you have the first-hand source of this information? Would really appreciate to see that, before any decision-making here.

Hi Stefan,

our institution is currently reviewing the literature regarding skin care and some of our nurses went to a german congress, where one of the speakers was reporting that there were several cases of contact allergies to colophonium inside the hydrocolloid patches they used. I talked to some representatives of hydrocolloid brands myself on a congress in Vienna, but no one ever heard of such a case before. I was told that there are people out there who are allergic to almost everything and that it can't be excluded that few people could becom contact allergic to a special ingredient of the hydrocollid. A few days ago we have spoken about our new skin care guideline and the theme arose again. The nurses that went to the congress were only able to tell me that the substance that could cause contact allergies would be colophonium.....

Now i searched the literature and found no single article about contact allergies due to colophonium in hydrocolloids regarding infants but a lot of investigations and case reports about the relationship between colophonium and contact dermatitis. One articles abstract stated, that the numbers of allergic reactions due to colophonium are rising. The australasian Journal of Dermatology Vol. 48 (2) stated in one article : " We identified colophonium, fragrance mix and balsam of Peru, now known as MP resin, as the most common concomitant allergens". Somehow i was unable to read the whole text because when i activated the link that should direct me to the text, another study regarding tea tree oil popped up!?!

I am not sure whether some folks just blew up a few informations that just got to their ears, but i found nothing very helpful regarding that matter. We recently had two ELBW Infants with contact erythema after using "Neo Bridges" (hydrocolloids for securing umbilical catheters) so...

It was not my intention to irritate anyone here, i just wanted to know if anyone else has heard what my colleagues brought up from a conference in Duesseldorf (Germany).

I will try to get in touch with the Lady who presented her findings at the congress and get back to you asap.

Cheers Norbert

Hi Norbert!

We commonly use DuoDerm ....since some of Convatecs products appearantly contain colophonium.....

You maybe interested in this:

LINK

Duoderm is good so far we don't have any issues