LAS VEGAS – Wet dressing, a technique forgotten in most places but in continual use at the Mayo Clinic for more than 80 years, knocks out intractable pruritus – whatever its cause – in children and adults, according to Dr. Mark Davis, chair of the division of clinical dermatology at the clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"It’s a simple technique that works extraordinarily well for any itchy condition from head to toe, and has virtually no side effects. It stops itching reliably, when nothing else has worked," including prednisone, methotrexate, phototherapy, and elimination diets, among other strategies, he said at Skin Disease Education Foundation’s annual Las Vegas dermatology seminar.
M. Alexander Otto/IMNG Medical Media
Dr. Mark Davis
Even so, "there’s remarkably little on this in the literature, and what’s published is mostly just in kids, but in adults it works brilliantly, too, particularly for atopic dermatitis. We use it when people come in itching from anything, like psoriasis," he said (J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. 2009;60:792-800).
"The commonest question [we hear from people] is ‘I’ve been going to doctors for years. Why didn’t anybody tell me about this?’ " said Dr. Davis.
If their pruritus is severe enough, patients will be admitted to the Mayo Clinic and have wet cloths applied to wherever the itch happens to be – above the waist, below the waist, the feet, or even the entire body, including the face – with a dry blanket on top if needed to ward of the chill. Patients can get up from bed for a bathroom break when the dressings are changed every 3 hours.
Topical steroids are used with the dressings up to three times a day; 1% percent hydrocortisone for the face or genitals, 0.1% or 0.05% triamcinolone elsewhere. The Mayo Clinic has never had a case of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression with the technique, and insurance usually covers the cost for 3 days, Dr. Davis said.
When outpatient treatment is sufficient, pruritic patients are instructed to put on wet pajamas or long johns, or hop into the shower in dry ones, and then leave them on for 30 minutes to an hour, 3-4 times a day. Nurses, with the help of handouts and videos, teach patients how to do this, and call them every 24 hours to see how they are getting along.
Hospital patients get the same instructions at discharge. "Initially, they have to do [it] at least once a day for a number of weeks, and then they can use [the technique] on an as-needed basis, maybe once or twice a week," Dr. Davis said.
"Wet dressings went out of favor" in most places because "they are just so much trouble," he said. At present, the technique is "largely unknown," as is the reason why it works, he added.
Dr. Davis has no relevant disclosures. SDEF and this news organization are owned by Frontline Medical Communications.