Background: Xerosis is a common dermatological complication in patients with end stage renal disease maintaining hemodialysis. Approximately 90% of them have uraemic xerosis. Purpose: The study was to clarify if phonophoresis increased the effect of hydrocortisone on xerosis in chronic hemodialysis patients. Thus the study was to clarify if phonophoresis increased the effect of hydrocortisone on xerosis in chronic hemodialysis patients. Materials and methods: Fifty four patients from both sexes with end stage renal disease maintaining chronic hemodialysis and having moderate to severe xerosis joined the study. The ages selected were from 44 to 60 years and chosen from the Hemodialysis Unit of Dikirnis General Hospital. They underwent random assignment into three groups (18 patients per group): group (A), (B) and (C). Methods: group (A) received sufficient amount of 1% topical hydrocortisone gel under occlusive dressing for 15 minutes followed by therapeutic ultrasound, group (B) received therapeutic ultrasound followed by sufficient amount of topical 1% hydrocortisone gel under occlusive dressing for 15 minutes and group (C) received only topical 1% hydrocortisone. The sessions were day after day for one month (12 sessions). All groups were evaluated before and after 4 weeks of phonophoresis application, the intensity of xerosis cutis was assessed by employing a visual analogue scale and a Specified Symptom Score system, which involved rating the degree of scaling, roughness, redness, and cracks.
Results: The finding of current study proved a significant decrease in the Visual Analogue Scale and the scaling, redness, roughness and cracks scores in the 3 groups after-treatment compared with that pre-treatment. A significant reduction in the visual analogue scale was observed in both group A and group B compared to group C. However, the comparison of VAS scores between group A and group B did not reveal any significant difference.
Conclusion:phonophoresis increased the effect of hydrocortisone on xerosis cutis compared to topical hydrocortisone.