Paraffin Bath Therapy for Chronic Hand Eczema

Beneficial Effects of Paraffin Bath Therapy as Additional Treatment of Chronic Hand Eczema: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: Chronic Hand eczema (CHE) is a common inflammatory skin disease has a major medical psychological and socio-economic implications that affect quality of life (QoL)and work ability. This study, the first randomized controlled trial that will be conducted to evaluate the effect of paraffin bath therapy (PBT) in the treatment of CHE.

Design: The study design is a randomized controlled trial with measures at pre-and post-intervention.

Subjects: Sixty patients with moderate to severe Chronic Hand eczema (CHE) will participate in the study. They will be classified randomly into two groups of equal number; paraffin group and the control group.

Interventions: Paraffin group will receive Paraffin bath therapy for 5 days per week for 12 weeks in addition to routine skin care program while the control group will receive routine skin care program.

Outcome Measures:

Objective SCORing Atopic Dermatitis, subjective item score and dermatology life quality index (DLQI) will be assessed before, at 6th week and at 12th week of treatment.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age from 20-40 years
• Time elapsed from the beginning of the disease ; more than three months according to the Guideline of the German Dermatological Society

Exclusion Criteria:

• active eczematous lesions on other parts of the body;
• malignant or premalignant skin tumors