Interventions for preventing occupational irritant hand dermatitis
Citation: Bauer A, Rönsch H, Elsner P, et al. Interventions for preventing occupational irritant hand dermatitis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2018;(4):CD004414.
What is this? Physical interventions to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 (such as water, detergents, soaps, solvents and gloves) can cause direct damage to the skin, leading to irritant hand dermatitis.
In this Cochrane review, the authors searched for randomized trials of methods to prevent occupational irritant hand dermatitis in employees exposed to interventions that might lead to it. They did not restrict their search by language of publication and did the search in January 2018. They included 9 trials (2888 participants) and also identified 2 ongoing studies and 1 additional article which is awaiting assessment.
What works: Moisturizers and barrier creams either alone or in combination may be effective in the primary prevention of occupational irritant hand dermatitis.
What doesn’t work: Nothing noted.
What’s uncertain: The effects of many interventions for the primary prevention of occupational irritant hand dermatitis in the workplace are uncertain.