What are cuts and fissures on the hand?
Fissures are thin, elongated cuts that form on the fingers. Fissures are usually shallow and form on the stratum corneum, but can be deeper.
What are the causes of cuts and fissures on the hands?
- Dry skin caused by poor skin nourishment
- Use of aggressive detergents
- Use of drugs which can react with the skin causing dryness and cracking. Among such pharmaceuticals are some biological drugs used in cancer treatments such as: afatinib (Gilotrif), osimertinib (Tagrisso), cetuximab (Erbitux), panitumumab (Vectibix), gefitinib (Iressa), erlotinib (Tarceva), trastuzumab (Herceptin), lapatinib (Tyverb)
How to treat cuts and fissures on the hands
Rhagades or fissures on the fingers of the hands are very annoying, painful and difficult to repair. In order to heal, the part must not be wet; water, and even more so detergents, cause irritation and prevent repair. Therefore:
- the part with fissures should not be wet and should be washed ‘dry’ with disinfectant.
A help for damaged skin
- Apply cotton gauze soaked in PEG Balm.
The gauze protects against the external environment while PEG Ointment is able to absorb excess moisture and create a skin environment favourable to physiological regrowth.
When resuming washing after healing, it is recommended to use Eudermic Cleansing Base.
