What is hand eczema?
If you are living with hand eczema, you are not alone. Hands are one of the most common parts of the body to be affected by eczema — an inflammatory condition that makes the skin red, flaky, itchy, and sometimes blistered and cracked.
Eczema, also commonly known as dermatitis, isn’t contagious, so it cannot be passed from one person to another.
The more you know about your own hand eczema symptoms and how they impact your life, the better prepared you’ll be to work with your doctor to find a management program that’s right for you. Take the My Hand Eczema Survey to find out more about your hand eczema.
What are the symptoms of hand eczema?
When the skin isn’t working properly as a barrier, the possibility of irritants and allergens getting through the top layer of skin increases. When this happens, your immune system becomes activated, which ends up making your skin red and inflamed. If the cause of your hand eczema persists, you may develop multiple symptoms that can become more severe over time.
Symptoms of hand
eczema that you may be experiencing include the following:
- Redness
- Itching
- Pain
- Flaking
- Swelling
- Cracks in the skin
- Small, fluid-filled blisters
- Thick, scaly skin
The areas of your hand affected by eczema may include your palm, the top of your hand, the sides of your fingers, your fingertips, or the web between your fingers. In some cases, your wrists can also be affected.
It is common to have multiple areas of your hand affected. People with hand eczema often scratch and rub their hands to get relief. This can damage the skin even more, leaving it open to infection. Cracks in the skin and burst blisters can also leave a person more susceptible to infection. This can lead to a cycle of increased inflammation and severity of symptoms.
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What causes hand eczema?
Your hand eczema may be caused by a natural or inherited tendency to develop the condition, or by materials or substances in your environment that you touch with your hands. Frequently, hand eczema is caused by some combination of these internal and external factors.
Internal factors
If you have a natural or inherited tendency towards eczema, this is called "atopy", and you may have eczema on other parts of your body as well as your hands. In addition, you may also have a tendency towards hay fever and asthma. In general, your skin may always feel itchy and dry, and your eczema may be easily triggered by extreme temperatures, sweating, or stressful situations.
External factors
Your hand eczema may be caused by substances or materials that you touch with your hands, resulting in so-called "contact eczema". These substances or materials may irritate your skin (ie, an irritant) or may be an environmental trigger that causes an allergy (ie, an allergen). Frequent or prolonged exposure to irritants or allergens in your environment may damage the skin on your hands and prevent its repair.
Irritant contact eczema
Irritant contact eczema may be triggered by frequent and prolonged contact with things such as water, gloves, oils, and certain foods. Many people develop irritant contact eczema at work, but household cleaning products can also cause it, and parents with young babies are often affected because of constant washing and cleaning. The problem may become worse during winter when homes and offices are heated and typically dry.
Allergic contact eczema
It is also possible that you have developed an allergy against things that you touch with your hands, known as allergic contact eczema. You may eventually develop an allergy against the material or substance that has been irritating your skin. Or you may have been using or wearing something for some time with no skin problems, and one day develop a rash where the trigger substance or allergen (eg, perfumes, latex, or nickel) has touched the skin. The skin reaction may not appear until a day or two after contact with the allergen.
If your hand eczema is caused by something that you contact in your daily life, you may notice periods of time when your hands get better or clear up. For example, if your hand eczema results from something you contact at work, your eczema may significantly improve on the weekends or during holidays. However, it is not always possible to identify the cause of hand eczema.
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When hand eczema is chronic
Hand eczema can become a chronic condition — meaning your symptoms have been constant for a long time (ie, more than six months) and your hand eczema remains even when any suspected triggers are avoided. In addition, it is possible that you are not responding well to treatments prescribed by your doctor. It is not understood why hand eczema turns chronic, but it is often preceded by some other type of hand eczema, either allergy or irritant related.
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Impact of hand eczema
Hand eczema can hurt more than just hands. In addition to physical pain and discomfort, hand eczema can also have an emotional, economic, and social impact on your life.
Because we use our hands so much in everyday living, the itching, painful blisters, and cracks in the skin can make looking after yourself, looking after your family, and holding down a job extremely difficult. Even the simplest tasks such as preparing food, washing dishes, or using a pen or keyboard can be a challenge. The pain and itching caused by hand eczema can also affect your sleep, leading to exhaustion.
Some people may get very embarrassed by the way their hands look when they are having an attack of hand eczema. This may mean that they avoid going out in public or wear gloves to hide their hands.
It is important to remember that no matter how helpless you may feel, there are ways of managing and treating hand eczema that can help you. Even those who suffer from severe or chronic hand eczema may find successful ways of dealing with their condition. The key is to work with your family physician or a dermatologist to find a management program that works for you.
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