Equivalence evaluation of moisturizers in atopic dermatitis patients

Skin care with moisturizers to compensate for dry skin and decreased barrier function, and to prevent recurrence of inflammation is thought to be very important for management of atopic dermatitis. However, many patients cannot continue the use of moisturizing medications because of unpleasantness. Cosmetics may be able to compensate for such deficiencies. To evaluate the usefulness of cosmetics in maintenance of the skin in remission, we conducted a clinical trial using moisturizing cosmetics of a phospholipid preparation that showed good moisture-retaining effect in dry skin. The utility of moisturizing cosmetics was evaluated by skin findings, subjective symptoms, adverse events, moisture content of the stratum corneum, transepider-mal water loss (TEWL), and a questionnaire on feel of use in comparison with a heparinoid preparation as a control product. Degree of improvement in skin findings, dryness and desquamation score, pruritus score, TEWL, and moisture content were nearly the same as with the control product. The result indicated that the moisturizing cosmetic was of equivalent effect compared with the heparinoid control preparation.