Is Bacitracin safe?
Allergy rates reported; injectable withdrawn
BSome human evidenceFDA approvedas of 2026-10-26
Allergic contact dermatitis is the main problem with bacitracin on the skin. It is common enough that the American Contact Dermatitis Society named bacitracin its Allergen of the Year in 2003. Frequent use on broken skin is thought to drive the allergy. Rare cases of anaphylaxis after use on the skin have been reported. 45
Bacitracin that enters the whole body damages the kidneys. That is why the injectable form was withdrawn in 2020. Use on small wounds does not reach meaningful blood levels. 13
More on Bacitracin
Citations
- DrugBank: Bacitracin go.drugbank.com
- StatPearls: Bacitracin topical statpearls.com
- Medscape: Baciguent (bacitracin topical) drug reference reference.medscape.com
- Smack 1996, JAMA: infection and allergy incidence with white petrolatum vs bacitracin ointment pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Pharmacy Times: bacitracin and boo-boos, becoming a no-no pharmacytimes.com
Reference information only, not medical advice. Drawn from the Bacitracin article, fact-checked against the cited sources. No dosing anywhere on this site.