Pruritus Senilis

In old people whose skin begins to exhibit atrophous changes the sensibility of the skin is much disordered and more or less associated pruritus occurs. The practitioner is consulted for this pruritus, and at first there is nothing else to be observed in the skin but laxity and thinness of the integuments, with perhaps plugging up of a certain number of the follicles by the exuviae shed from the sebaceous glands. The pruritus is the evil from which the patient desires to be rid. It is increased by heat, cold, the warmth of the bed, by digestion, and other things. These cases may be relieved by the use of alkaline baths, free oiling of the surface, or some local anodyne application. Besnier advises in these cases that the patient should bathe in a solution containing to each litre a solution of carbolic acid 10.00 to 500 grammes of acet. aromat. This should be followed by dusting the affected parts with amylum, 90; bismuth salicyl., 20.0.

After a while the scratching practiced to relieve the irritation induces the development of distinct eruptive phenomena. A certain amount of hyperaemia occurs, and this is followed by the formation of lymph papules, which, being scratched, become pruriginous, that is to say, the apices are torn, a little blood oozes out and dries on these apices as a dark speck. These changes are followed by more or less infiltration of certain parts, by the intermingling of excoriations made by the nails with the pruriginous rash, and in some instances by ecthymatous pustules or urticaria. The pruritus is often intense, and takes the form of astinging, creeping, or burning sensation. The pruritus is the primary, as it is occasionally the sole condition. The disease may be, of course, more or less general, or more marked in one place than another.The cure of pruritus senilis is, too, effected by emollient and vapour baths, and anodynes, locally applied.


The above formulae, and many others, may be used in any of the forms of pruritus. Under the varieties mentioned below, some other means of affording relief will be noticed.