Acute and Chronic Urticaria: Prevalence, Etiologies, Diagnosis, and Treatment

 Urticaria is a pruritic skin lesion characterized by rapid onset of blanchable central wheals and marginal flare. Urticaria diseases are categorized on the basis of their duration, etiology, and causes. In this review, a thorough search was conducted in electronic databases such as Scopus, Pubmed, and Google Scholar using the following keywords: urticaria, acute urticaria, chronic urticaria, etiology of urticaria, diagnosis of urticaria, and treatment of urticaria. Search was limited to the articles published in January 2006 to December 2019. Urticaria is a highly prevalent disease that is experienced by 10-20% of general population during their lifetime. Acute urticarial is more common and affects about 1-5% of the population. Patients with urticaria, especially chronic urticaria are prone to stress, excitement, or obsession and have low quality of life. The etiology of urticaria is still unknown in most cases and usually a complete history and physical examination helps in making diagnosis. Antihistamines are the first-line treatment of both acute and chronic urticaria. This study aimed to review the latest etiologies of urticaria and its diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.