subject: Useful Facts About Skin Eczema [print this page] How do you characterize skin eczema? Well, eczema is a skin ailment caused by the presence of various allergens, both internally and externally. People often associate the condition of eczema with dermatitis, which offers similar indicatory signs to skin eczema during diagnosis. Thus, these two terms are often used interchangeably, although they are two distinct medical descriptions.
The term eczema literally means to boil out. The terms are taken from the Greek words ec and zema. Ec means out and zema means boil. When studying the precise condition of eczema patients, you will notice that the skin actually does seem to boil out. Eczema patients also suffer from redness, skin scaling, and itchiness. For many centuries now, the term eczema has been commonly used. Indeed, the term has left a permanent mark on the minds of the people, who now generally associate all skin ailments with eczema. Even though dermatologists have made major efforts to introduce the new term dermatitis to replace eczema, they have not yet succeeded in establishing consistent or widespread usage.
It is true that many people still get confused about whether to associate dermatitis or eczema with a certain skin ailment. The real question to be asked is this what is the difference between the two terms? To answer this let us review the essential key points for dermatitis and eczema.
We have established that the terms dermatitis and eczema are commonly used synonymously. So where is the justification for associating them together? It is appropriate to use the term dermatitis for all kinds of inflammatory skin ailments, whereas Eczema should be used for a particular and unique dermatitis pattern. Thus dermatitis is a general term, while eczema refers to a particular dermatitis. Another way of looking at this, is that all kinds of eczema are a form of dermatitis but not all dermatitis can be considered to be eczema.
Given this definition, why is it that so many people still diagnose all forms of dermatitis as eczema? Probably through a lack of proper education. Generally, people from the United States use the term dermatitis, while Europeans tend to mostly used the term eczema. Nevertheless, from a wider prospective both the terms eczema and dermatitis are still used in order to ensure that there is no doubt in the minds of the people being treated.
Skin eczema has three clinical divisions, namely: sub acute, acute, and chronic eczema. How do we characterize each of them? How do they differ from one another?
A sub acute eczema illustrates diffuse redness with swelling as a manifestation. Skin rash can also be developed that often causes an inconvenient itchiness feeling. An acute eczema occurs with skin rashes, mostly red and can be very itchy. Chronic eczema has a lesser manifestation of redness but scaling grows in appearance over time. Following this, the skin turns thick and becomes pigmented with furrows.
The major key for identifying treatment is to properly understand the ailment. You can then deal with it accordingly.
