Occupational skin injury by hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide is widely used in products such as rocket fuel, bleaching preparations and topical disinfectants. Contact of hydrogen peroxide with the skin can cause severe skin damage. In this report, we describe a case o f skin injury induced by hydrogen peroxide. The patient was a 34-year-old m an working in a dry cleaning shop. While he was pouring 35% hydrogen peroxi de, some of it accidentally splashed over his left shoulder and back, and t hen an erythema, purpura and vacuolar eruption, similar to bubble wrap, app eared on his left shoulder and down the left side of his back. Histological ly, numerous vacuolar structures were observed in the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. Coupled with the clinical features, these vacuolar st ructures were considered as 'oxygen bubbles'. Subcutaneous emphysema was de tected by chest X-ray examination. All skin eruptions rapidly healed withou t scarring by using a steroid ointment. As far as we know, this is the firs t time such clinical and histological features have been described Copyrigh t (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.