Detection and treatment of Staphylococcus aureus colonization in chronic hand eczema: a multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic hand eczema (CHE) is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease of the hands that influenses public health. Staphylococcus aureus (SA) colonization play an important role in CHE morbidity and progression, which also correlated to chronicity and severity of the disease.

METHODS: From October 1 to November 31, eighty patient volunteers with chronic hand eczema and ten healthy volunteers were chosen from the four cities. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) as a new diagnostic method for SA and methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), was superior to the traditional method of germiculture.

RESULTS: We found that the colonization of SA was common in chronic hand eczema in the multicenter study and topical antibiotic therapeutic was effective to SA colonization while not to MRSA colonization.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed the present situation of SA colonization in four cities of China using a new method and had reference significance in anti-SA using topical antibiotic.