A careful physical examination was performed by a dermatologist, a stoma care nurse specialist and a resident. The majority of ostomy patients were seen at the dermatological department Roskilde University Hospital, but a few were seen at their homes due to advanced age or physical impairment. Personal details, medical histories, stoma appliances and daily stoma care routines were recorded along with a thorough examination of the peristomal area in regards to ostomy placemant, skin retraction, hernia, stoma height and width. A general skin examination was also undertaken. Each variable was recorded and further documented by colour photographs. To ensure that the participating patients correlated to the general population, a national computer based register of all ostomy patients in Denmark were compared to our patients in regards to ostomy type, sex, age and geographical location. Patients with a peristomal skin problem and a control (person without a skin problem) were selected from the cross-sectional study and invited for further examination. At this examination several non invasive test were conducted. These non invasive test included: D-squame tapes, Capacitans measurements , TEWL(transepidermal water loss) measurements , Tape stripping, Mecanical measurements of the skin and pH measurements.