Cracked skin on the fingers
Cracked skin on the fingers or toes is a common affliction. The cause is a disrupted and thus weakened skin barrier. What to do about it?
First, let's answer the question of what can disrupt the skin barrier. Surprisingly, the first place is too frequent and incorrect washing. Many people believe that frequent washing moisturizes.
The opposite is true.
Too warm water dries out the skin. Common soaps have a lye base that washes away the skin's natural film. The scourge of the hands is the use of salts and similar 'abrasive' pastes. The final scrubbing with a towel causes microcracks in the disturbed skin. The broken skin then becomes hypersensitive and easily irritated.
The second cause of skin barrier disruption is work that causes mechanical damage. This does not have to be manual and physically demanding work. For example, prolonged and repeated flipping through papers is enough to wear away the skin's protective film and dry it out. For women, the skin is often damaged by household chemicals used in cleaning or unsuitable cosmetics.
A third common skin factor is a congenital disorder of lipid production in the skin, which manifests itself as atopic or allergic eczema. Cracked skin on the fingers can also be a one-time manifestation in the case of contact with strong alkali (e.g., pool chemicals), acid, or plant etching oil (e.g., bolshevik, parsnip). It can also be a bacterial disease. most often some kind of fungus. Relatively often it is a manifestation of a burn, e.g. in rubber gloves.What to do with peeling skin on the fingers?
First of all, it is important to find out what the disease is. Does it get worse after work? Has it developed rather gradually? Does it recur? Then it is more likely to be some form of irritant eczema or dyshidrotic eczema. The treatment is the same for eczema and depends on what the lesions look like.
Only dry and slightly red skin without visible cracks can be soothed with Dermaguard barrier cream. This moisturises and, most importantly, protects the skin in the long term from further irritation, which would develop into painful, dry and cracking crusts or into wet and itchy blisters.
If the fingers are already developing hard, corroded skin that is cracking into blood, we can try home treatment with baths in a strongly diluted solution of hypermanganese of a light pink colour, Jarisch's solution or in a decoction of yarrow. After a few minutes of bathing, we dry our hands with a tap and can apply zinc ointment from the pharmacy. Cotton gloves must be used until the deep cracks have healed. However, if the hands need to heal as soon as possible, it is safer to see a dermatologist and have a lighter corticosteroid ointment prescribed. To prevent the problem from recurring, it is important to start using barrier creams like Dermaguard. Subcutaneous blisters that do not burst can be healed again with zinc ointment, the above-mentioned baths and the application of a barrier cream. We can try to soothe wet deposits with a black tea bath. After the bath, apply ichtoxyl black ointment from the pharmacy. At this stage, it is better to see a dermatologist to get a prescription corticosteroid ointment.
Again, we deal with the one-time poultice according to the appearance of the skin. Disinfection and sterile covering for the duration of treatment is important to avoid secondary infection. In case of deep scalding, we seek a general practitioner.
If we suspect ringworm, we purchase an appropriate cream from the pharmacy after consulting the pharmacist. It must be treated for at least 14 days, otherwise the mould will reappear.
We treat diaper rash on the hands with good ventilation and diaper rash dressings and creams.
