Repeated mechanical trauma to the skin: Occupational aspects

Abstract

Many of today's jobs involve repetitive tasks, often resulting in mechanical trauma to the skin. Trauma from pressure, pounding, friction, vibration, and penetration of foreign materials produce a great variety of skin lesions. Mechanical insults contribute directly or indirectly to a number of distinctive problems that are work related, viz, infections, contact dermatitis, occupational skin stigmata, reactions to unabsorbable materials, vibration effects, dermatoses among athletes, the Koebner phenomenon in palmar psoriasis, pressure urticaria, and cutaneous neoplasms arising in burns and scars.