Venous Eczema Pictures - 174 Photos & Images
Venous eczema is a common form of eczema / dermatitis that affects one or both lower legs in association with venous insufficiency.
Venous eczema can form discrete patches or become confluent and circumferential. Features include:
Treat the eczema
Venous eczema can form discrete patches or become confluent and circumferential. Features include:
- Itchy red, blistered and crusted plaques; or dry fissured and scaly plaques on one or both lower legs
- Orange-brown macular pigmentation due to haemosiderin deposition
- Atrophie blanche (white irregular scars surrounded by red spots)
- “Champagne bottle” shape of lower leg (narrowing at the ankles) and induration (lipodermatosclerosis)
Treat the eczema
- Dry up oozing patches with Condy's solution (potassium permanganate) or dilute vinegar on gauze as compresses.
- Oral antibiotics such as flucloxacillin may be prescribed for secondary infection.
- Apply a prescribed topical steroid: start with a potent steroid cream applied accurately daily to the patches until they have flattened out. After a few days, change to a milder steroid cream (eg. hydrocortisone) until the itchy patches have resolved (maintenance treatment). Check with your doctor if you are using steroid creams for more than a few weeks. Overuse can thin the skin, but short courses of stronger preparations can be used from time to time if necessary to control the dermatitis. Coal tar ointment may also help.
- Use a moisturising cream frequently to keep the skin on the legs smooth and soft. If the skin is very scaly, urea cream may be especially effective.
- Protect your skin from injury: this can result in infection or ulceration that may be difficult to heal.