Hand
dermatitis is a multifactorial skin disorder in which skin barrier impairment is involved in the pathogenesis. The development of topical agents that improve skin barrier function is therefore a promising approach for the management of hand
dermatitis. Topically applied
lipids may interfere with skin barrier function, and
emollients containing skin-related
lipids have been suggested to facilitate repair of the skin barrier. However, evidence for the superiority of
emollients containing skin-related
lipids over the more traditional
emollients is still lacking. The aim of this study was to compare an
emollient containing skin-related
lipids (
Locobase Repair) with a traditional
petrolatum-based
emollient for the management of hand
dermatitis. Adult males and females (
n = 30) with mild to moderate chronic hand
dermatitis were treated twice daily for 2 months either with an
emollient containing skin-related
lipids or with a pet.-based
emollient. In the case of exacerbation, the patients of both treatment groups were allowed to use a mild
corticosteroid according to instructions. Both treatment regimes significantly improved clinical signs of hand
dermatitis as assessed by the investigator global assessment, hand
eczema area and severity score. We did not observe significant differences in the improvement of clinical signs,
itching, patients' assessment of efficacy, cosmetic acceptability or usage of topical
corticosteroids between both treatment groups. In conclusion, this study confirms that the frequent use of
emollients may be useful in the
therapy of hand
dermatitis. However, we could not demonstrate the superiority of this particular
emollient containing skin-related
lipids in patients with chronic hand
dermatitis.