Treatment with a barrier-strengthening moisturizer prevents relapse of hand-eczema. An open, randomized, prospective, parallel group study.

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.