What is Eczema Its Symptoms And Treatment
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
What is Eczema
The term eczema refers to a scaling process and associated with itching that affects the skin. Although the last mechanisms involved in each of the types of eczema are different, there is in each of them an alteration in white blood cells, which facilitates an abnormal immunological reaction to substances external to the individual.
In childhood atopic eczema, possible triggers should be ruled out, such as infectious processes and the consumption of certain foods.
Causes:
The main causes that can cause an eczema to be triggered are coexistence with other diseases, having some type of allergy, being in contact with irritating substances and the individual's own genetic inheritance.
Symptom:
The characteristic skin lesions of the different eczema are reddish and scaly plaques in different body areas, and associated with significant itching.
If in some cases an important inflammatory reaction occurs, instead of circumscribed scaly plaques, the presence of vesicles with serous content inside can be observed.
Prevention:
The main measures that can help prevent the appearance of an eczema include:
• Avoid contact with substances that may irritate the skin.
• Dress with cotton clothing or made with a cotton blend.
• Wear gloves in activities that involve being in contact with water or an irritating substance for a long time.
• Use soft and fragrant soaps in personal hygiene.
• Do not use hot water for bathing and limit yourself to showers with cold and / or warm water.
• If you have irritated skin, avoid activities that may increase sweating since sweating increases skin irritation.
• Continue skin care even when the eczema has disappeared.
Types:
Basically, it can be divided into two groups:
Atopic eczema:
Characterized by the presence of scaly and reddish skin lesions, mainly in the flexures of the limbs, and which is usually associated with different allergic processes: asthma, hives, allergic rhinitis, etc, together with dry skin.
Contact eczema:
Characterized by the appearance of desquamate plaques on the skin surface, either by skin irritation of substances that are toxic to the patient - irritating contact eczema -, or by an allergy to certain substances that come into contact with the skin - allergic contact eczema.
Diagnosis:
The diagnosis of suspicion of each of the forms of eczema should be through the medical history. Specifically, in the allergic contact eczema, epicutaneous contact tests should be performed in order to determine the allergen responsible for the eczema plaques presented by the patient.
Treatments:
The treatment of allergic contact eczema will avoid the substance to which the patient is allergic. In patients with atopic eczema, foods that may be involved will be eliminated, and intercurrent infectious processes will be treated.
In addition, once the triggers have been detected and eliminated, treatments such as corticosteroids - topical or systemic -, antihistamines, moisturizers and antibiotics in case of bacterial superinfection are indicated. In those patients with allergic allergic eczema, in addition, recommendations should be given to protect the affected areas, and in particular, to housewives who are recommended to wear gloves for performing household chores.
Recorded Information:
About 30 percent of patients with this disease have a family history of atopy. More specifically, atopic eczema may appear for the first time in young children, at a few months of age, and in these cases skin lesions usually have a predilection for the scalp, face and diaper area. In many cases, patients of child-bearing age with atopic eczema may be those who already had the same lesions in the first months of life, or present at this age for the first time the clinical picture. In most cases, when puberty arrives, the atopic eczema disappears leaving only skin dryness, and on some other occasions other manifestations of atopy - staging, allergic rhinitis, asthma etc.
More rarely, atopic eczema may appear in adulthood for the first time. On the contrary, allergic contact eczema will appear only in those patients sensitized - allergic - to a specific substance - allergen -, which will present the skin lesions every time they are exposed to that allergen. A period of previous sensitization is necessary - contact with the test substance - before developing allergic contact eczema. All patients who are exposed to substances with a significant irritant capacity may have irritating contact eczema. A sensitization period is not necessary. Characteristic within this group is the so-called housewife dermatitis in hands, produced by the continued use of very irritating soaps.
