Contact Dermatitis Updates for 2026, With Walter Liszewski, MD

At the 2026 Maui Derm Hawaii conference, held at the Grand Wailea hotel, a session was presented titled ‘Contact Dermatitis Update 2026,’ during which the talk’s presenter highlighted the key challenges of managing a wide range of contact dermatitis issues.1,2

This session was presented by Walter Liszewski, MD, associate professor of dermatology and cancer epidemiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Liszewski spoke with the team at HCPLive about this session and what he feels are the most important elements of this talk.

“[In] patch testing, we have different Core Series,” Liszewski expressed. “These are [lists of] allergens that we set nationally for the US and Canada that will [include] the most common allergens, but they're not updated annually. What we start to see is that in between the periodic updates, which occur every 3 - 5 years, there may be new allergens that are all of a sudden becoming very relevant.”

Liszewski highlighted examples of these newly-relevant allergens, including benzisothiazolinone. He described this allergen as not included in the American Contact Dermatitis Series. Liszewski notes benzisothiazolinone’s structural similarity to methylisothiazolinone and methylchloroisothiazolinone.

However, it is used predominantly in hand soaps, dish soaps, and laundry detergents, so he urged clinicians to ask patients if their soap contains this ingredient. Later, Liszewski was also asked about the range of dermatitis dilemmas and what some of the most challenging or commonly mismanaged scenarios were, in his view.

“There are 2 major ones: The first is chronic hand eczema,” Liszewski explained. “...The second thing I talk about is chronic lip dermatitis or cheilitis; more often than not, it's not an allergy.”

To learn more about this topic and related information, view Liszewski’s full video interview posted above.

The quotes used in this video summary were edited for clarity.

References

1. Liszewski W. Contact Dermatitis Update 2026. Presented at: Maui Derm Hawaii 2026; January 25-29, 2026; Maui, Hawaii.

2. Schalock PC, Dunnick CA, American Contact Dermatitis Society Core Allergen Series Committee, et al. American Contact Dermatitis Society Core Allergen Series: 2020 Update. Dermatitis. 2020 Sep-Oct;31(5):279-282. doi: 10.1097/DER.0000000000000621. PMID: 32947457.