ABSTRACT
Chlortetracycline is currently used in the manufacturing of medicated animal feeds and as antibacterial agent in eye ointments. In the period 1997-2001, in the United Kingdom, 200 patients with venous or mixed venous/arterial leg ulcers were patch tested with chlortetracycline and 4 (2.0%) had a positive patch test. A woman had used chlortetracycline ointment on a dermabraded tattoo and developed dermatitis. Patch tests were positive to the ointment ‘as is’, chlortetracycline and demethylchlortetracycline, but not to oxytetracycline and tetracycline. One case of occupational allergic contact dermatitis to chlortetracycline in a pharmaceutical worker was reported from Warsaw, Poland, in 1984. A woman who had developed allergic contact dermatitis from an ointment containing chlortetracycline also reacted to demethylchlortetracycline, but not to oxytetracycline and tetracycline.
