Medical Guide: Pustular Psoriasis

Pustular Psoriasis is an uncommon, but very severe skin condition. It can affect the body both internally and externally.

The disease affects mostly adults and rarely occurs in children. It may create chemical imbalance for the patient as well as heart failure and problems with the kidneys. Extra care should be taken to see that this skin disease not get out of control by not being properly treated. The disease can cause infection and loss of body fluid in the patient. If treated carefully, the patient will see improvement in several days or weeks and will revert to Erythrodermic psoriasis, which is a milder case of the disease.

There are different types of this disease. If the disease has invaded the entire body, it is usually called generalized pustular psoriasis and if it is limited to only certain areas of the body, it is called localized pustular psoriasis.

There are two types of localized pustular psoriasis; one is acropustulosis that occurs on the fingertips and the other is palmo-plantar pustulosis that occurs in the palm of the hands and the soles of the feet.

Von Zumbush pustular psoriasis is a form of the generalized form of the disease. At the onset of this skin condition, the skin has a large redden and painful appearance that forms blisters (pustules) that may ooze out of the skin. These blisters can last for several days and progress and coalesc and eventually leading to drying and peeling of the skin. The generalized form of pustular psoriasis skin disease can become very serious and requires hospitalization of the patient.

The symptoms of this type of psoriasis are dry, red and painful skin irritation with pustules or blisters that ooze. These blisters may appear everywhere; in the mouth or even under the nails, causing them to come off. Extreme cases will be accompanied by body chills, fever, nausea, weakness of the muscles, joint pains and loss of appetite. The disease most often affect the genital and anal areas and bends and folds in your skin. Within a day, the pustules fuse together and form "lakes" of pus that dry and peel off in sheets. The skin underneath is a smooth reddish surface, on which new pustules may appear. These episodes of pustules appearing, fusing and peeling, and reappearing can last for days to weeks, and may exhaust the patients. In 2-3 months hair loss may occur.

There is a milder juvenile or infantile pustular psoriasis also. It appears in smaller areas with pustules in the periphery of the affected areas.

Treatment is administered in order to restore and heal the skin’s natural appearance. It also helps to fix the chemical imbalance, loss of body fluids and stabilizes the body’s temperature. In the case of severe attacks of this skin disease, the patient has to be hospitalized with lots of bed rest, avoiding any heat, antibiotics for any infections and other diagnosed treatment from the attending physician.

Doctors will use different types of medication to treat the patient; some of which are injected or given orally. Methotrexate is one that is noted as being a very popular drug used in the case of this skin disease.

Doctors may also prescribe anthralin or retinoids. Retinoids treatment may be prescribed at the beginning stage of the disease. After this treatment, then PUVA treatment will follow. If the disease is milder, then the topical treatment is tried first.

A phototherapy treatment called PUVA is used after the skin disease has passed its more severe phases. The less extreme cases of the disease can be treated with topical creams such as corticosteroids as well coal tar preparations that will help to clear up the lesion on the skin. When the physician prescribes a topical steroid cream, it may be one that has a low potency. Cortisone is a milder topical steroid cream that can be bought over the counter at the pharmacy, but they may not be as effective as one that is prescribed by the doctor. These topical crèmes or lotions help to moisturize the area and give it a soothing effect from dryness and itching.

This skin condition may be life threatening due to the fact that it affects the patient both internally and externally, so extra care should be taken when resorting to alternative methods. The patient should probably see a doctor who specializes in alternative medicine who would be able to adequately diagnose and treat the problem.

Supportive and helpful natural strategies are herbal remedies, essential oils and Tamanu Oil. These are milder ways to treat pustular psoriasis.

Try using topical moisturizers that soothe the skin. Your best option will be Tamanu Oil. It has anti inflammatory and anti infectious action, as well as being a good moisturizer. It will soothe and greatly ameliorate the condition.

Other natural methods of treatment are essential oils and herbal remedies.

What treatment is selected will depend on how severe the skin condition is and how sensitive your skin is to different medications. Topical treatment may be impractical if the affected are is too large. It may be difficult to cover the entire area effectively, and it may also be a too expensive approach, or an approach associated with to much side effects if the remedy used is steroids.

Herbal remedies and essential oils are very useful and will then be the treatment of choice, and will help get the condition under control. This treatment may be very good on its own, or as a support for the doctors treatment.

Severe cases would call for all three strategies; tamanu oil providing topical treatment, and essential oils and herbal remedies representing the systemic treatment. Thus one may treate the disease both internally and externally with excellent, effective remedies.

The herbal medicine Skin Dr. is known to bring all psoriatic skin manifestations to silence for long periods.

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