Allergic contact dermatitis caused by wooden rosary

Abstract

Allergic contact dermatitis due to wood is more common in individuals working with raw wood than in a consumer. When the wood is prolonged contact to the consumer skin, the acidity of sweat will oxidize chemical in the wood to become an allergen which induce contact dermatitis. There were few reported cases of allergic contact dermatitis from finished wood items; such as wooden jewelry, knife handle, wooden chair, chin rest of violin and mouthpieces of musical instruments.

We report 4 cases of wooden rosary contact dermatitis, three are allergic contact dermatitis and one contact leukoderma. All patients are Thai male 35, 42, 48, 68 years, with history of wearing wooden rosary before developing the skin eruptions. The one with contact leukoderma had no preceding eczematous lesion. Patch testing showed positive reaction to saw dust from their wooden rosary. Patch testings were done on 10 normal persons with negative results. After discontinue wearing the rosary the lesions disappeared within 3 weeks. According to our knowledge there has been no report of contact leukoderma due to these wood.