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Abstract: Occupational dermatitis (irritant dermatitis, contact urticaria and contact eczema) is frequent among healthcare workers. Irritant hand dermatitis, the most common occupational dermatitis, occurs often in individual who work in a humid environment, who handle disinfectants, and who are required to wash their hands frequently; atopic dermatitis is a risk factor for this condition. Natural rubber latex present in rubber gloves is the most common cause of contact urticaria. Contact eczema can be induced by rubber accelerators (for example, thiurams) present in gloves, and also by disinfectants (glutaraldehyde, dodecyldimethylammonium), disinfectants and detergents, hand creams, acrylates (in dentists), and echography gels. Nurses sometimes develop contact dermatitis to drugs they handle; these allergies should be diagnosed by appropriate skin testing because sensitized individuals may develop a severe, generalized cutaneous adverse reaction if they are subsequently exposed systemically to the sensitizing drug. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent studies have emphasized the value of drug patch tests, in addition to, prick and intradermal tests to determine the molecule responsible for cutaneous adverse drug reactions (CADR), also known as drug eruptions. The value of drug patch tests depends on the clinical features of the CADR, and they are valuable in the investigation of drug reactions, such as generalized eczema, systemic contact dermatitis, maculopapular rashes, toxic epidermal necrolysis, and fixed drug eruptions. Their sensitivity also depends on the particular drug involved. Guidelines for performing prick, ID and patch tests, published in 2001, are analyzed in the present article. We also report on the information published more recently on how to perform the tests, how to interpret them, new drugs reported to yield positive reactions and, finally, how to define the relevance and the specificity of drug patch tests in the workup of cutaneous drug allergies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]