Judy Foreman

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I was in the hospital for knee surgery and got a terrible rash on my back. The nurses said it was probably from chemicals used t

May 10, 2005 by

It could be. These rashes happen “with enough frequency that we do see it. They’re often due to the high amounts of bleach and whitening agents in the detergent” used in hospital laundering, said Dr. John Williams [cq] a dermatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Commercial laundries use much harsher chemicals than people use at home, he said, and these agents can cause contact dermatitis, a rash that in most cases is simply a reaction to an irritating substance but 20 percent of the time is a genuine allergic reaction, in which immune cells gear up to fight the offending substance.

“Nurses are extremely sensitive to this issue,” said Dr. Buddy [cq] Cohen [cq], interim chairman of dermatology at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. In severe cases, they can put special blankets or other products between the patient and the bedsheet to protect sensitive areas.

But hospitalized patients can also get rashes for other reasons, including reactions to medications. Some people are also allergic to latex (an allergy that can be serious) and other materials used in some hospital mattresses.

Often, though, rashes occur simply because people are lying flat in bed, and sweat glands become blocked, said Dr. Barbara Gilchrest [cq], chairman of dermatology at the Boston University School of Medicine. The solution is to stay as comfortably cool and dry as possible, change position in bed, and use baby powder or a product called Zeasorb that absorbs moisture.

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