Abstract
Anesthesia providers have the burden of constant hand hygiene during task dense periods. The requirement for hand hygiene often demands frequent application of alcohol-based hand rub. To assess whether frequent alcohol-based hand rub use leads to skin changes or irritant contact dermatitis, volunteers cleaned their hands with alcohol-based hand rub every 15 minutes for 8 hours for 5 sequential days. They were examined by a dermatologist before and after and asked about subjective skin changes. Results suggest an increase in irritant contact dermatitis scores and subjective complaints.
