Author: Dr Ian Coulson, Consultant Dermatologist and Editor-in-Chief (2025).
Edited by the DermNet content department.
This 53-year-old man has had recurrent blistering on the palms of his hands. It occurs three or four times a year, particularly when the weather changes from cool to warm.
There are symmetrical blisters on both palms.
While pompholyx is usually an endogenous process, it can occasionally be due to a contact dermatitis, and patch testing would be valuable.
When the condition is in the active vesicular stage, it can be dried up with 1 in 10,000 potassium permanganate soaks for 10 minutes twice a day, followed by a potent topical steroid cream. As the condition dries, stop the permanganate and swap to a potent steroid ointment. It is sometimes justified to give a short course of oral prednisolone.
