Allergic contact dermatitis caused by Sterillium®

Hand eczema is a common occupational skin disease in healthcare workers. The etiology is multifactorial. Risk factors are a history of atopic eczema, repeated contact with irritants and a contact allergy. In this report, we describe a patient with occupational hand eczema, caused by contact allergy to 1-propanol which was present in the hand disinfectant SterilliumR. In many European countries SterilliumR is used as an alcohol based hand disinfectant. Allergic contact dermatitis in healthcare workers due to contact with alcohol-based disinfectants has rarely been reported and contact allergy to 1-propanol has only been described once. Her hand eczema cleared after switching to a disinfectant without 1-propanol