Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to DermConsult on ReachMD. On this episode, we’ll hear from Dr. Matthew Zirwas, an American Board of Dermatology certified physician and the Founder of Bexley Dermatology Research in Ohio. He’ll be discussing how we can identify hand eczema triggers in our patients, which he spoke about at the 2026 Maui Derm NP and PA meeting. Here’s Dr. Zirwas now.
Dr. Zirwas:
Figuring out the underlying contributing factors is hard. And sometimes it's obvious, right? So you take a history: “Is there anything that seems to make it worse? What soaps do you use? What do you do for a living? Do you wear gloves a lot? Do you have any hobbies?” Those kinds of things.
Probably the only thing that's unexpected is that wearing gloves often makes hand eczema worse, and for two reasons. Number one, if there's any residual irritant or allergen on the hands and then you put gloves on, you dramatically magnify the effect. So if you wash your hands and then put gloves on and you didn't thoroughly get all of the soap off, with the residual soap and then putting the gloves on, the gloves magnify the effect of the soap damaging your skin. What's that sound like? Healthcare. Remember, we do it all the time—wash our hands and put on the gloves. So that's one pearl in there, and that's probably the biggest one.
The other thing is sweat. Gloves holding sweat against the hands can also be an issue. So for a lot of people, when washing dishes, and that kind of stuff, you want to get gloves that have a fabric liner on the inside, and that tends to go much better. And then last, if your gloves get contaminated with soap, allergens, irritants, or anything on the inside, you’ve got to replace them, because every time you put the gloves on, you're exposing yourself.
So those would be the things that are not obvious. In general, it's obvious. “What do you do for a living? How often do you wash your hands?” That kind of stuff. But the glove nuances are not obvious.
Announcer:
That was Dr. Matthew Zirwas discussing factors that can trigger hand eczema. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit DermConsult on ReachMD.com, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening!
