Hi
Welts on chest and arm may be caused by
Inhaled — Pollens, animal dander, molds
Injected — Insect stings or bites, especially bee stings, or injected medication
Ingested — Foods (tree nuts; fish and shellfish; dairy products; legumes, especially peanuts), food additives, medications such as penicillin or aspirin.
You can apply calamine lotion and/or take a nonprescription antihistamine medication, such as
chlorpheniramine (
Chlor-Trimeton), clemastine (Tavist) or
diphenhydramine (Benadryl). It is critical to relieve the itching because scratching can stimulate more hives and itching.
If these medications are not effective, you may be given a prescription medication such as
cyproheptadine (Periactin), azatadine (Optimine) or hydroxyzine (Atarax or Vistaril). For people who have significant side effects from those medications, non-sedating antihistamines can be used, including loratadine (Claritin), cetirizine (Zyrtec) and fexofenadine (Allegra). For cases that are even more resistant to treatment, H2 receptor blockers might be added. These include ranitidine (Zantac), nizatidine (Axid), famotidine (Pepcid) or cimetidine (Tagamet). Doxepin (Adapin, Sinequan) is particularly helpful for people having a hard time sleeping at night. When other options fail,
corticosteroids may be used.
Regards
Dr DE