Winter geriatric atopic dermatitis is frequent Experts: timely medical treatment, standardized treatment, avoid dry skin

Li Wei said that when diagnosing geriatric atopic dermatitis, special attention needs to be paid to excluding other pruritus diseases with similar clinical manifestations.　Photo by Chen Jing

December 15 (Reporter Chen Jing) The winter climate is cold and dry, and the repeated itching of atopic dermatitis (AD) annoys many people. In the winter, the temperature drops, and there are many elderly people in the dermatology department of the hospital.

Professor Li Wei, an expert in the department of dermatology at Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, told reporters on the 15th that atopic dermatitis is high in the elderly population. In its specialist clinics, the number of elderly patients with atopic dermatitis is close to a quarter of the number of patients.

The expert told reporters that in the "Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis in China (2020 Edition)", senile atopic dermatitis in people over 60 years old has become a new classification. Why are older people more susceptible to atopic dermatitis? Professor Li Wei further explained that with the increase of age, the skin structure and function of the elderly change accordingly, and some people have decreased sebum secretion ability, skin barrier dysfunction and sweat reduction on the basis of allergic constitution, thereby inducing or aggravating atopic dermatitis.

During the interview in Japan, Mr. Li, who is nearly seventy years old, told reporters that he suffered from persistent, repetitive, itchy and intolerable "eczema", "just think about applying some ointment and taking some medicine, who knows it doesn't work at all, and it is getting more and more serious." "The doctor said that I actually had atopic dermatitis, but I had never heard of it before, and I always treated it as eczema, and the result became worse and worse."

Li Wei said that many elderly people in the dermatology department of the hospital, like Mr. Li, mistakenly treated the atopic dermatitis they suffered as ordinary eczema. In the clinic, the elderly often treat atopic dermatitis as ordinary pruritic eczema and do not pay attention to it. When persistent skin itching attacks occur, it is even worse at night, so that many elderly people who have slept for a shorter period of time lose the opportunity to sleep well.

Li Wei introduced: "Compared with infantile, childhood, adolescent and adult patients, the main symptoms of senile atopic dermatitis are itching and generalized dermatitis, accompanied by dry skin, the site of skin lesions is distributed throughout the body, the extensor of the limbs is more common, the rash forms are diverse, there can be erythematous patches, desquamation and lichenoid changes, there can also be nodular pruritus, if the disease worsens, it will also form a serious and generalized rash, and even erythematosis." ”

Regarding the diagnosis of atopic dermatitis in the elderly, Professor Li Wei said that the elderly suffer from atopic dermatitis, which is often associated with cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, mental disorder disease, seasonal rhinitis and so on. This makes it more difficult to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of atopic dermatitis. He said bluntly: "Because the elderly population often has systemic diseases and the incidence of tumors is also high, when diagnosing geriatric atopic dermatitis, special attention needs to be paid to excluding other pruritus diseases with similar clinical manifestations." ”

In daily life, many elderly patients do not pay enough attention to atopic dermatitis: some people feel that "patience is not itchy"; some people resist medication treatment because they are worried about the side effects and safety of drugs; and many people will choose "folk remedies", thus delaying or even aggravating the condition.

Professor Li Wei introduced that if the elderly have itchy skin and do not see good over and over again, they must go to the dermatology clinic of a regular hospital in time and receive standardized treatment. According to the expert, from the perspective of mechanism, the new biologics can specifically block key pathogenic factors, which belongs to precision targeted therapy, which can quickly, significantly and continuously improve the degree of skin lesions and itching symptoms, and is safe and effective and can be used for a long time. Related drugs have been included in medical insurance to help elderly patients with long-term and standardized treatment.

Professor Li Wei reminded that elderly patients with atopic dermatitis should reduce the frequency of using hot baths, apply warm water showers to avoid high temperature damage to the skin; in addition, should use less shower gel or soap, so as not to cause the skin to be more dry and rough; in terms of dress, pure cotton and other natural fabrics and loose clothing should be selected as much as possible to reduce skin irritation. He pointed out that elderly patients should pay attention to rest, avoid excessive fatigue, affect the body's immunity and aggravate the disease. (End)