Chronic Hand Eczema Guidelines from an Expert Panel of the International Eczema Council

Background Assessment of chronic hand eczema (CHE) is complex and warrants standardization. Objective We sought to guide clinicians on the assessment of CHE. Methods An electronic questionnaire regarding the diagnosis and assessment of CHE was completed by councilors (n=45) of the International Eczema Council, an international group of clinicians and researchers with expertise in CHE. The survey consisted of 52 statements for consensus. Results Overall, nine statements (17.3%) had strong, twenty-three (44.2%) moderate, 12 (23.1%) low, and 8 (15.4%) very low levels of agreement. Five statements had considerable disagreement, including the value of conducting a skin biopsy (62.2% disagreement), investigating for possible type 1 reactions (60.0%), conducting a fungal culture (44.4%), finding no history of relevant allergens and/or irritants (31.1%) in most or all cases, and performing patch testing irrespective of lesion location and morphology (28.9%). Agreement was generally highest among respondents from Europe (28.6-77.8% agreement), followed by Asia (7.1%-35.7% agreement), North America (0%-35.5% agreement), and other (0%-13.3% agreement). Conclusions There were substantial differences of agreement, suggesting there are many knowledge and/or practice gaps with respect to CHE. Future research is needed to inform evidence-based and/or consensus guidelines for CHE.