Chapped hands and feet

Introduction Hand and foot cleft palate refers to dry and cracked skin of the hands and feet caused by various reasons, accompanied by pain, which can affect daily life and work. The disease is both a concomitant symptom of some skin diseases and an independent skin disease. Hand and foot splitting occurs in autumn and winter. The rash is distributed on the flexor side, the palm, the heel, the lateral aspect of the ankle and other areas where the stratum corneum is thickened or often rubbed. The clinical manifestation is the depth and length of the fissure along the dermatoglyph, and the lesion can be from no feeling. Mild tingling or moderate tenderness, even burning and accompanied by bleeding.

Cause

Internal cause

The stratum corneum is thicker, thicker in the palm sputum and other parts, prone to cracking, palmar sac without hair follicles and sebaceous glands. When the temperature is low and the humidity is low in winter, the skin lacking sebum protection is prone to cracking. In addition, the elderly, ichthyosis and keratosis, etc., easily lead to dry skin, thickening of the stratum corneum, and more susceptible to the disease under the influence of some external factors.

2. External causes

Hands and feet are exposed, and the hands are often exposed to various substances, such as dryness, friction, and trauma, which are susceptible to acid, alkali, and organic solvents, as well as fungal and bacterial infections. In life and labor, the stretching of local movements is prone to skin splitting.

an examination

The disease occurs in the palm, fingertips, finger flexion and heel, the outer edge of the foot, etc. Therefore these parts should be the key protection objects. At the beginning of the onset, the skin is dry, the keratinization is thickened, the skin lines are obvious, and cracks appear along the skin lines. Severe cases can be deep into the skin, bleeding, conscious pain, more obvious when active. A purulent infection can occur if bacteria invade.

(a) Subjective symptoms can be almost without any feeling of mild tingling or moderate tenderness or even burning, mainly depending on the depth and extent of the cleft palate.

(2) The objective symptoms are generally divided into three degrees according to the degree of cleft palate:

Once: The skin is dry and cracked, but only reaches the epidermis, so there are no symptoms such as bleeding and pain.

Second degree: The skin is dry, and the fissure is slightly tingling from the epidermis to the dermis, but does not cause bleeding.

Third degree: dry skin, cracks from the epidermis deep into the dermis and subcutaneous tissue, often causing bleeding and tenderness or burning.

Differential diagnosis

According to the objective manifestations and subjective symptoms of the cleft palate, the diagnosis is not difficult. But sometimes it needs to be differentiated from the following hand and foot diseases.

1, hand and foot

Hand, foot and ankle can also cause cracking pain due to scratching, but the hand, foot and ankle have the following characteristics:

1 often limited to one side of the palm or sputum, finger (toe), rarely limited to the heel.

2 The primary damage is papules and blisters.

3 often itchy, very little pain. Sometimes chapped over the years, not necessarily heavy in summer or summer, but sometimes more severe in summer.

4 often with toe, nails and concomitant.

5 often find fungus in the skin lesions.

It should be pointed out that sometimes the cleft palate can be complicated by both hands and feet, and the two diseases can be mutually causal. According to the survey, the concurrency rate is 30%-85%.

2, hand and foot eczema

Sometimes hand and foot eczema can cause cracking pain due to itching, but when eczema is acute or subacute, the primary damage of erythema, papules, blisters, etc., is often accompanied by itching. If it is chronic, it is often located in the palm of your hand and involves the back of the hands and feet, and it is often accompanied by thick and itchy skin, so the two can be identified. Hand and foot cleft palate can coexist with hand and foot eczema, and the coexistence rate is about 1.4%.

3, ichthyosis

Sometimes it is easier to split the hands, feet and feet on the basis of ichthyosis, especially when the ichthyosis is aggravated in the cold season. The concomitant rate of the two diseases is 24% to 47%.

4, palmoplantar keratosis

It is a congenital disease that is prone to chapped due to hyperkeratosis. However, palmoplantar keratosis does not necessarily form cleft palate in winter and autumn, and sometimes it can occur all year round. The concomitant rate of the two diseases is 2.4%.

The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments.