Descriptive Study of the Clinico Etiological Patterns of Stasis Dermatitis in Railway Employees Attending Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: Stasis dermatitis is a common chronic inflammatory disease of skin that occurs on the lower extremities due to chronic venous insufficiency and may be a precursor to various skin changes like eczema, venous ulceration and rarely lipodermatosclerosis. This study was done in exclusively railway workers whose occupation demands prolonged standing/sitting/actively moving to assess the clinico-etiological patterns and evaluate the demographic profile of Stasis dermatitis. Objective: To assess Clinico etiological patterns and demographic profile of stasis dermatitis. Materials and Methods: This is an Prospective observational study conducted in Tertiary care hospital for duration of six months. First 100 patients attending Dermatology outpatient department of age more than 20years with clinical features of stasis dermatitis are selected for the study. Results: Among 100 patients, 79(79%) were male and 21(21%) were female patients with male-to-female ratio of 4: 1 and mean age of incidence was found to be 40 years. The most common risk factor was found to be prolonged standing (76%) and most of the patients had complaints of itching (90%). Perforator vein incompetence was found in 36 % of patients. Conclusion: Our study highlights the significant association between venous skin changes and various risk factors. The present study proves the importance of other risk factors like prolonged standing, obesity in producing varicosities, eczematous skin changes. Many patients with chronic venous insufficiency present to dermatology department very late with skin changes of lipodermatosclerosis and venous ulcer. Hence, to identify the high-risk patients at very starting stage is important to avoid disease complications.