Detection and treatment of Staphylococcus aureus colonization in chronic hand eczema: a multicenter study

Background: Chronic hand eczema (CHE) is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease of the hands that influences public health. Staphylococcus aureus (SA) colonization plays an important role in CHE morbidity and progression, which also correlated to chronicity and severity of the disease. Materials and methods: From October 1 to November 31, 80 patient volunteers with CHE and 10 healthy volunteers were chosen from the four cities. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a new diagnostic method for SA and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), was superior to the traditional method of germiculture. Results: We found that the colonization of SA was common in CHE in the multicenter study and topical antibiotic therapeutic was effective to SA colonization, whereas not to MRSA colonization. Conclusions: Our study revealed the present situation of SA colonization in four cities of China using a new method and had reference significance in anti-SA using a topical antibiotic.