Dysidrosis

This name is applied to an acute affection of the sweat-glands and ducts,   characterized by vesicular eruptions, usually located and confined upon the palms of the hands, but sometimes upon the soles of the feet; and in either case the sides of the fingers and toes may be involved. The vesicles at first are small, discrete, and deep; afterward they become confluent and superficial; and, finally, disappear by absorption.

The earliest symptoms of this affection, previous to the appearance of the eruption, are a tingling sensation, accompanied by heat and tension of the parts involved. When the eruption first appears, the vesicles are minute, transparent, and discrete, imbedded deeply in the skin, and there they slowly increase and become opaque and whitish in color. The end may come here, and the eruption disappear by absorption, accompanied by slight scaling of the parts affected; but, when the affection continues, the vesicles grow larger and coalesce, forming bullae; and when its course is run, usually in a few days or weeks, absorption, or rupture and evaporation of the fluid contents take place, and the bullae disappear, leaving a dry, reddened skin. The reaction of the fluid contained is acid. More or less pruritus is always present.


The eruption is usually symmetrically distributed, and, when both the hands and feet are involved, it first appears on the hands. The duration and severity of the attack are increased in persons of impaired health. Such persons, particularly young women, are predisposed to this affection, being in a relaxed and depressed nervous state, manifested in part by a mild, continuous hyperidrosis of the palmar surfaces of the hands.