ABSTRACT
Occupational contact dermatitis is the commonest occupational skin disease worldwide. Hospital workers including doctors, nurses and paramedical staff are exposed to a wide variety of irritants and allergens in their occupational environment. To determine the pattern of contact reactions, and to identify allergens and irritants responsible for contact reactions in hospital workers, in our setup. It was a descriptive, observational study. At the department of Dermatology, Allied and Divisional Headquarters Hospitals, Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, From 1st October 2002 to 30th April 2003. A questionnaire based screening of 732 hospital workers was done, at their workplace. Two hundred and nineteen among them, with a clinical suspicion of either contact dermatitis or contact urticaria were enrolled in the study. After establishing a clinical diagnosis, all were subjected to patch test using European Standard Series. Results show that 50% of patients had irritant contact dermatitis, 48% had allergic contact dermatitis, while contact urticaria was seen in 2% of patients. Female to male ratio was approximately 2:1. Nurses were the most frequently affected group. Nickel sulphate was the commonest allergen. Incidence of occupational irritant contact dermatitis is almost equal to allergic contact dermatitis. Occupational contact eczema is more common among female hospital workers as compared to males. Follow up of this particular group of cases might give some insight into the scenario of occupational skin diseases in our society