Image Gallery: Painful skin rash on the face after a ‘chemsex’ party

Airborne allergic contact dermatitis by proxy caused by ‘poppers’

“…Alkyl nitrites are also toxic to the skin, due to the nitration of aromatic amino acids (xanthoprotein reaction), 1 hence they often provoke ICD. Although the earliest report of ICD from alkyl nitrites concerned hand dermatitis due to sodium nitrite in an etching agent, 4 most cases nowadays are due to poppers 5‐9 . Patients, mostly males, usually present with facial ICD (mainly of the nose and lips), although extra‐facial lesions, often by transfer, may also occur (eg, thoracic region, genitals, legs, feet), occasionally accompanied by lymphadenopathy 1…”