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Occupational Contact Dermatitis: Health Personnel

  • Ana M. Giménez-ArnauEmail author
  • Christoph Skudlik
Living reference work entry
First Online:

Abstract

Healthcare personnel show high occupational risks suffering mainly from irritant and/or allergic contact dermatitis and less frequently contact urticaria. The spectrum of occupations involved is broad. The specialized nature of the tasks developed by some of these workers makes it difficult to relocate or substitute them. Although atopic condition and wet work increases the risk of hand eczema in healthcare workers, the hazard of sensitization is also very high. The agents capable to induce contact allergy show different chemical structures including proteins and low molecular weight molecules. This updated chapter reviews the causes of occupational contact dermatitis and urticaria in nurses, clinical assistants and cleaners, surgeons, laboratory personnel, other therapists, veterinarians, and laboratory animal handlers. Skin complains should be assessed habitually with both prick and patch testing. The identification of the responsible agents is always necessary being fundamental for developing effective preventive measures, some of which have been already demonstrated to be effective.

Keywords

Allergy Contact Dermatitis Health personnel occupation 
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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of DermatologyHospital del Mar, Institut Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques IMIM, Universitat AutònomaBarcelonaSpain
  2. 2.Department of Dermatology, Environmental Medicine, Health Theory Faculty of Human Sciences University of OsnabrueckInstitute for Interdisciplinary Dermatological Prevention and Rehabilitation (iDerm), University of Osnabrück, Lower-Saxonian Institute of Occupational Dermatology (NIB)OsnabrückGermany

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