Skin blister or also known as cutaneous blister is a common condition that can affect individuals of any age group. Skin blisters can affect even newborns and infants. Detection of the exact cause of skin blisters in an individual is very important as different causes have different treatments. Some of the causes are autoimmune diseases, infections, and physical injury. Skin treatments for blisters can help you get rid of blisters and continue your wonderful life once again.
Skin blisters are widely classified based on their distribution into generalized skin blisters or localized skin blisters. Localized skin blisters are subdivided into:
- Hands and feet
- Linear
- Dependent areas
- Grouped
- Photo distributed
- Dermatomal
On the other hand, generalized skin blisters are subdivided into:
- Tense lesion
- Flaccid lesion or skin sloughing
- Vesicles
The causes for localized hands and feet skin blisters are:
- Acute eczema
- Dermatophytosis
- Friction blisters
- Sucking blisters
- Erythema multiforme
- Epidermolysis bullosa simplex
The causes of localized linear skin blisters are:
- Contact dermatitis
- Phytophotodermatitis
- Friction blisters
The causes for localized dependent areas skin blisters are:
- Coma blisters
- The bullous disease of diabetes
- Edema blisters
The causes of localized grouped skin blisters are:
- Herpes simplex virus infection
- Herpes zoster virus infection
- Mild dermatitis herpetiformis
The causes of localized photo distributed skin blisters are:
- Polymorphous light eruption
- Blistering porphyrias
- Pseudoporphyria
- Sunburn
- Phototoxic reaction
The cause for localized dermatomal skin blisters is:
- Herpes zoster virus infection
The causes for generalized tense skin blisters are:
- Bullous pemphigoid
- Mucous membrane pemphigoid
- Linear IgA bullous dermatosis
- Epidermolysis bullosa acquisita
- Bullous systemic lupus erythematosus
- Dermatitis herpetiformis
- Paraneoplastic pemphigus
- Pemphigoid gestationis
The causes for generalized flaccid skin blisters are:
- Stevens-Johnson syndrome
- Toxic epidermal necrolysis
- Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome
- Pemphigus Vulgaris
- Pemphigus foliaceus
- Paraneoplastic pemphigus
The causes for generalized vesicular skin blisters are:
- Miliaria crystallina
- Pemphigus foliaceus
- Dermatitis herpetiformis
- Disseminated Herpes simplex virus infection
- Disseminated Varicella-zoster virus infection
- Sweet syndrome
Skin blisters are skin lesions in which the skin lesions are filled with fluid as a result of acantholysis (no more adhesion between epidermal cells), spongiosis (edema between the cells of the epidermis), and separation of dermis and epidermis. Vesicles are skin lesions that are less than 1cm in diameter, while bullae are skin lesions that are more than 1cm in diameter. Skin blisters contain clear fluid and this differentiates them from pustules as pustules contain cloudy and yellowish fluid.
Skin blisters are usually self-limiting, but some are life-threatening. The life-threatening skin blisters are:
- Toxic epidermal necrolysis
- Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome
- Purpura fulminans
- Disseminated herpes simplex
- Herpes zoster infection in immunocompromised patients
Stevens-Johnson syndrome is a condition characterized by epidermal sloughing. This condition happened as a result of exposure to certain medications. Patients will develop a fever and flu-like symptoms along with the formation of red and painful skin lesions. Varicella-zoster virus infection (chickenpox) is a disease that commonly affects children. Children who are not vaccinated against this disease are always the victim of this infection. Skin treatments for blisters can help you get rid of blisters by Doctoroncall and continue your wonderful life once again.