[Anaphylactic shock caused by ethyl alcohol ingestion]

This article reports an unusual case of a 34 years old female who developed a near fatal anaphylactic shock 15 minutes after drinking an alcoholic beverage. Six year before, with different kinds of alcoholic beverages she developed generalized urticaria cleared without medication. Although the precise mechanism of our patient reaction could not be elucidated, the wide variety of ethanol containing beverages suggest that ethanol or its metabolites was the offending allergen acting as hapten.