ABSTRACT
Atopic dermatitis (AD) affects adults and children and has a negative impact on quality of life. The present multicentre randomized double-blind controlled trial showed a barrier-improving cream (5% urea) to be superior to a reference cream in preventing eczema relapse in patients with AD (hazard ratio 0.634, p = 0.011). The risk of eczema relapse was reduced by 37% (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 10-55%). Median time to relapse in the test cream group and in the reference cream group was 22 days and 15 days, respectively (p = 0.013). At 6 months 26% of the patients in the test cream group were still eczema free, compared with 10% in the reference cream group. Thus, the barrier-improving cream significantly prolonged the eczema-free time compared with the reference cream and decreased the risk of eczema relapse. The test cream was well tolerated in patients with AD.
Subject(s)
Dermatitis, Atopic/diagnosis , Dermatitis, Atopic/drug therapy , Dermatologic Agents/administration & dosage , Emollients/administration & dosage , Quality of Life , Administration, Cutaneous , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Cross-Over Studies , Dermatitis, Atopic/psychology , Double-Blind Method , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Kaplan-Meier Estimate , Male , Middle Aged , Proportional Hazards Models , Prospective Studies , Recurrence , Risk Assessment , Secondary Prevention/methods , Severity of Illness Index , Sweden , Treatment Outcome , Young AdultABSTRACT
Hand eczema influences the quality of life. Management strategies include the use of moisturizers. In the present study the time to relapse of eczema during treatment with a barrier-strengthening moisturizer (5% urea) was compared with no treatment (no medical or non-medicated preparations) in 53 randomized patients with successfully treated hand eczema. The median time to relapse was 20 days in the moisturizer group compared with 2 days in the no treatment group (p = 0.04). Eczema relapsed in 90% of the patients within 26 weeks. No difference in severity was noted between the groups at relapse. Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) increased significantly in both groups; from 4.7 to 7.1 in the moisturizer group and from 4.1 to 7.8 in the no treatment group (p < 0.01) at the time of relapse. Hence, the application of moisturizers seems to prolong the disease-free interval in patients with controlled hand eczema. Whether the data is applic-able to moisturizers without barrier-strengthening properties remains to be elucidated.
