Who is susceptible to solar dermatitis?

Solar dermatitis is a common disease at present. Because workers engaged in front-line work stay outside for a long time, jobs like traffic police and sanitation workers often expose their skin to the sun, which can cause viral skin diseases due to poor skin resistance. Therefore, solar dermatitis is mostly caused by sunlight exposure. Patients with solar dermatitis often have deep and shallow patches on the surface of the skin. Severe cases may also lead to some complications, such as edema, erythema, blisters and erosion, and unconscious itching and burning pain. The anti-allergic principle should be used in treatment. Mild patients can use topical medications, and severe patients need to take oral medications. People with poor resistance and allergic constitution should try not to engage in some special work as it will cause damage to the skin.

1. Who is prone to solar dermatitis?

The occurrence of solar dermatitis is related to personal constitution and skin color. People with weak constitution and light skin are more likely to get the disease and the symptoms will be more severe; it is also related to the length of exposure time and the size of the range. For example, people in plateau areas and those engaged in outdoor labor are more likely to get the disease.

In addition, it is related to the drugs and foods taken, such as: tetracycline, griseofulvin, chlorpromazine, tetracycline ointment, coal tar preparations, psoralen, angelica dahurica, hydrochlorothiazide, furosemide, bergamot oil, lemon oil, sandalwood oil, aspirin, etc.; or eating certain photosensitive vegetables and wild vegetables containing porphyrins, such as: amaranth, gray vegetable, astragalus, locust flower, fig, etc., and then sunbathing, they will also get sick, which is plant photodermatitis.

2. What are the symptoms of solar dermatitis? How is it treated?

The typical symptoms of this disease are erythema and edema of the exposed skin areas that are irradiated. In severe cases, there may also be blisters, bullae and erosions, as well as itching and burning pain. If the sun exposure area is extensive, a small number of patients may also experience systemic symptoms such as fever, nausea, fatigue and discomfort.

Modern medicine takes anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic treatment principles. For mild cases, calamine lotion or compound phellodendron liquid is usually applied externally, 3-4 times a day, each time for 10-20 minutes; in the acute phase, corticosteroid preparations can be applied externally to relieve local symptoms; antihistamines such as cetirizine tablets, loratadine tablets, etc. can be taken orally for the whole body, but be especially careful not to use chlorpheniramine, which is photosensitizing; severe patients can take oral prednisone, hydroxychloroquine and other drugs; Chinese medicine believes that erythema is caused by blood heat, and should be treated with clearing heat and cooling blood; edema or blisters are caused by dampness, and should be treated with clearing heat and dampness; itching is caused by wind, so it should be treated by dispelling wind and dispersing evil.

3. Misconception: The dangers of people buying topical skin disease medications and applying them randomly.

There is a simplest principle for topical dermatological medications: dry against dry, wet against wet, and use paste when it is neither dry nor wet. That is, when there is a lot of exudation, use wet compresses; when there is little exudation, use lotions and pastes; when it is dry, scabby, and scaly, use ointments and creams. The indiscriminate use of external medicines for skin diseases in daily life is mainly manifested in two aspects: one is the improper selection of dosage forms; the other is the abuse of glucocorticoid ointments, such as: Piyanping. Long-term abuse and irrational use of drugs can both turn common dermatitis and eczema into chronic ones that are difficult to cure, especially glucocorticoid ointments, which are prone to relapse after discontinuation of the drug. Long-term use can cause local skin thinning and weaken the skin's protective function. Third, it violates the principle of external treatment based on syndrome differentiation and treatment in traditional Chinese medicine.

4. How to prevent it in daily life? What kind of food is better? (For outdoor workers such as traffic police and sanitation workers)

The key issue in preventing and treating solar dermatitis is sun protection. People who are sensitive to sunlight must take protective measures when going out, such as holding an umbrella, wearing long-sleeved clothes, and applying sunscreen to exposed skin. Sunscreens sold on the market can also be used. The sun protection factor SPF value (SPF=minimum erythema dose protected by sunscreen/small erythema dose of skin not protected by sunscreen) is usually marked on the packaging box, which indicates the length of the sunscreen effect and represents a certain degree of sun protection ability. If you are going to be outdoors for a long time, you should choose a sunscreen with SPF30 or so. If you are not going to be outdoors in the sun for a long time, you can choose a sunscreen with SPF15 or SPF20.