The main purpose of occlusive dressing is to occlude the area of skin bearing the lesion from the outside atmosphere. Many diseases like intractable lichenified or hyperkeratotic lesions such as those seen in lichen simplex chronicus, hypertrophic lichen planus, psoriasis, keratodermas, etc. are better treated under occlusive dressing with corticosteroids.
The sweat and water released from this area keep on accumulating inside the occluded space, raise its humidity, produce maceration and damage the epidermal barrier. This helps in more efficient penetration of corticosteroids and a quicker regression of the lesion.
Occlusion is done by smearing the lesions liberally with a corticosteroid ointment and covering them with polyethylene sheets or tubing. When the lesions are situated on an extremity, these can be covered with polyethylene tubing and the upper and the lower ends sealed with adhesive tape.
In case a joint is to be enclosed in the occlusive dressing, the polyethylene tubing should be left sufficiently loose to allow free movements of the joint. If the lesions are situated on the trunk, one will have to use polyethylene sheets and seal all the four sides with adhesive tape. [Read more...]
Anti-bacterial agents are used for the treatment of diseases caused by bacterial infections, but these can also be employed to prevent secondary infection in the lesions of other diseases.
These are commonly known as pigmented nevi and consist of nevus cells which may be located either at the dermo-epidermal junction (junctional nevus), in the dermis (dermal nevus) or at both these places (compound nevus). Clinically, these manifest in a variety of forms.
