Routine, long-term use of steroid creams will not cause any significant negative side-effects in children with eczema, the results of a new study indicate.

Eczema is a group of skin complaints that can occur anywhere on the body. An estimated one in 10 people are affected at some point in their lives and symptoms can include an itchy, scaly red rash.

Australian researchers looked at the long-term use of topical corticosteroids (TCS). These creams and ointments suppress eczema for as long as they are used and can speed up the healing process.

The team from the University of Sydney noted that many parents fear using these on their children's skin and this can lead to poorly managed eczema.

The most common fear is that TCS use will ‘thin the skin'. These fears are also shared by many healthcare professionals, including pharmacists.

The researchers studied 92 children with eczema. They convinced the parents of 70 children to use enough TCS to control their children's eczema very well so that they were virtually free of eczema consistently. The other 22 children did not use TCS and acted as the control group.

The children were then examined for any signs of skin thinning. This included examining their treated and untreated skin by dermoscopy, a technique which utilises a mini-microscope to search for even the most subtle signs of TCS side-effects.

The researchers found that the children using TCS had no evidence of skin thinning even though they were using enough TCS to produce complete control of their eczema. In fact, these children were no different to the children who were not using TCS at all.

"Our results show that normal routine use of TCS does not cause skin thinning and parents should be reassured. We hope that our work will give them the confidence to use TCS safely and effectively," said lead researcher, Gayle Fischer.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Pediatric Dermatology.

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