Brief overview
- Treatment: care of parchment skin with creams (water-in-oil emulsions), spare affected skin areas, treat triggering disease if necessary
- Course: Age-related parchment skin is not curable, but can be treated well. If diseases or medications are the cause, the skin usually regenerates after successful treatment of the disease or discontinuation of the triggering medication.
- Wound care: Wound dressings with silicone coating on the adhesive edges, foam dressings or wound dressings with gauze bandages. Adhesive plasters and self-adhesive dressings should be avoided.
- Prevention: Drink enough, eat a balanced diet, avoid injuries.
- What is parchment skin? Dry, brittle, very thin skin
- Frequency: parchment skin occurs mainly in older people, but can also occur in younger people.
- Signs: Skin appears “translucent,” is dry, extremely sensitive and very thin, may be bluish to gray in color, bruising (hematoma) occurs rapidly.
- Causes: Natural aging of the skin, diseases (e.g., Lyme disease, cirrhosis of the liver), and/or long-term treatment with medications (e.g., cortisone).
What to do against parchment skin?
Creams and care products for parchment skin
When caring for parchment skin, it is first and foremost important to improve the feeling of the skin. To do this, it is important to prevent the skin from drying out too much. Creams or lotions in the form of water-in-oil emulsions (W/O emulsion) are particularly suitable for the care of parchment skin. They form a greasy film on the skin that protects the top layer of skin and reduces moisture loss.
Apply suitable skin care products to the skin at least once or twice a day. Beware of conventional grease creams (e.g. body lotions) from the drugstore: they often contain additives that dry out the sensitive parchment skin even more. Also, when washing, avoid curd soaps and other common soaps from the supermarket. pH-neutral, lipid-replenishing washing lotions are better suited for very dry skin.
Avoid care products with preservatives and artificial colorants. This also applies to cosmetic products. Also make sure that the products are free of perfumes and alcohol. These ingredients further dry out the skin and can irritate it.
Ask your doctor or pharmacist which skin care products are best for your skin.
Protect skin
Dermatologists therefore recommend in daily personal hygiene:
- Clean your body and face with lukewarm water (not too hot, not too cold).
- It is best to shower only every other day and rather briefly. The shower should not be too hot (below 36 degrees Celsius); very hot water dries out the skin!
- It is better to refrain from taking full baths or bathe no more than once a week. Add special moisturizing bath oils to the bath water instead of foaming bath additives.
- In addition to soft washcloths and towels, use skin-friendly toilet paper. Gently dry or blot the wet skin with the towel. Do not rub the affected skin dry!
- Products that stimulate blood circulation, such as hard skin brushes or massage brushes, as well as alcoholic home remedies (e.g. rubbing alcohol) are taboo for parchment skin.
- After washing, apply a suitable skin care cream to the skin.
- For people in need of care, keep the diaper area clean and dry.
Treatment of the underlying disease
If parchment skin is the result of another condition, such as infection with Lyme disease or cirrhosis of the liver (shrunken liver), it is important to have it treated by a doctor.
Can parchment skin be cured?
Wound care for parchment skin
Parchment skin is extremely sensitive and vulnerable. Even slight impacts or careless scratching of itchy skin areas can cause the skin to tear or burst open. In addition, parchment skin regenerates more slowly, so that wounds heal more slowly. The skin is therefore also more susceptible to wound infections and wound healing disorders.
Dermatologists advise affected persons not to use adhesive plasters and self-adhesive dressings for wound care if possible. These can not only irritate the parchment skin, but also cause further skin damage and pain when removed. Wound dressings with a silicone coating on the adhesive edges, for example, are more suitable.
Foam dressings or wound dressings fixed with gauze bandages are also recommended. They prevent the surrounding skin from sticking to the wound and the dressing material. Regardless of the material used, it is important to remove the wound dressing carefully, moisten it if necessary and only lift the plaster slightly when removing it.
Preventing parchment skin
To prevent parchment skin from developing in the first place, it is important to take the right measures to prevent it. For example, avoid direct sunlight, reduce alcohol consumption, avoid cigarettes, eat a healthy, balanced diet rich in nutrients, drink plenty of water, and treat your skin with moisturizing skin care products.
Drink enough
Another measure to prevent parchment skin from developing is to keep your skin hydrated. To do this, it is first and foremost important to drink enough. The German Nutrition Society (DGE) recommends 1.5 liters per day. Water and unsweetened herbal and fruit teas are ideal for this. Juice spritzers with three parts water and one part juice are also suitable.
Avoid injuries
Since wounds tend to heal poorly in people with parchment skin, it is important to protect against bumps, bruises and contusions. It is especially advisable for people with problems walking (e.g., frail, elderly people; those with Parkinson’s disease or after a stroke) to wear safe footwear. Corners and edges in the home should be padded and danger spots secured, for example with edge protectors, anti-slip mats or bed rails.
Other measures
Seat and back cushions help to avoid localized pressure points and friction on affected areas of the skin. Doctors recommend that people with parchment skin also change position occasionally when lying or sitting. In the case of bedridden patients, care should also be taken to reposition them regularly so that they do not develop bedsores.
Those who eat a balanced diet, drink little alcohol and do not smoke also create a good basis for preventing parchment skin. Extensive sunbathing or frequent visits to the solarium should also be avoided for the sake of the skin. Day or sun creams with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 30 protect the skin tissue from damaging UV radiation.
What is parchment skin
The term “parchment skin” is derived from “parchment” – a dried, oiled animal skin that is considered the precursor of paper in ancient times. Its wrinkled, transparent surface resembles the appearance of parchment skin, which is most common in older people.
How is aging skin different from parchment skin?
With age, everyone’s skin becomes thinner and drier. It increasingly loses moisture, is less elastic and resistant – this results in so-called senile skin. This occurs in everyone sooner or later due to the natural aging process. At an advanced age, however, aging skin can develop into parchment skin. It is significantly thinner (almost “transparent”) and more sensitive, often tears and is more vulnerable than normal aging skin.
What does parchment skin look like?
Parchment skin appears transparent – similar to parchment. Affected individuals can often recognize it by the fact that a fold of skin remains when the skin is squeezed (e.g., on the surface of the hand). This usually disappears after a few seconds. With healthy skin, this happens immediately, unless the affected person has drunk too little water.
Parchment skin is also very sensitive to external influences. Even small scratches, bumps, bruises or friction can injure the skin and lead to wounds that heal only slowly and may become infected with germs.
Other typical signs of parchment skin are:
- The skin is extremely dry, often scaly.
- Bluish to gray skin discolorations appear.
- The skin surface is slightly shiny.
- The skin is brittle.
- Bruises form even with minimal impact.
Parchment skin can basically develop on any part of the body. However, it often appears in areas where the skin is taut and unpadded over the bones, such as the back of the hand, elbow, forearms, shins or feet. Those affected find the thin, cracked skin in visible areas, such as the face and hands, particularly uncomfortable.
How does parchment skin develop?
Parchment skin has various causes. Not only older people are affected by parchment skin, but also younger people. In addition to the natural aging process of the skin, medications and certain diseases also promote the development of parchment skin.
Natural aging of the skin
The most common cause of parchment skin is the natural aging process. The older a person is, the slower their cells renew. Wounds heal more slowly, and important skin components such as collagen and elastin are produced less. The skin loses elasticity and resilience, causing wrinkles and folds to appear.
Medications
Parchment skin also occurs in (younger) patients who take certain medications for years. Examples include:
- Cortisone (glucocorticoids), e.g. for asthma, rheumatism or neurodermatitis (as tablets, infusions or as skin creams)
- Insulin for diabetes mellitus
- Cytostatic drugs (chemotherapy), especially for cancer
- Anticoagulants, e.g. for cardiac arrhythmias or increased risk of stroke
Diseases
Parchment skin also occurs in people with certain diseases.
These diseases include:
- Liver diseases (e.g. cirrhosis of the liver).
- Diabetes mellitus (diabetes)
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- As a result of Lyme disease infection (acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans Herxheimer; skin disease in the late stages of Lyme disease)
- Systemic scleroderma (autoimmune disease in which the connective tissue of the skin hardens)
- Cushing’s syndrome (excessive concentration of cortisol or cortisone in the blood)
- Rare hereditary diseases in which organs and tissues age prematurely (e.g. Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome or progeria)
- Narrowing of blood vessels in legs and arms (e.g. pAVK or peripheral arterial occlusive disease, chronic venous insufficiency)
- Malnutrition (e.g., eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa)
- Nerve damage leading to an undersupply of oxygen and nutrients to the skin
Parchment skin caused by temporary treatments or underlying diseases usually regenerates once the underlying diseases have been successfully treated or triggering drugs have been discontinued. However, if the treatment or disease persists for many years, the skin thinning is often irreversible (irreversible).
Other causes of parchment skin include:
- UV radiation (e.g. due to excessive sunbathing or frequent visits to a solarium)
- Radiation therapy (e.g., in the treatment of cancer; the skin may be red, swollen, dry, and sensitive in the areas of the body that have been irradiated)
- Lack of fluids due to not drinking enough
- Vitamin and mineral deficiency (e.g. iodine, zinc, copper, biotin)
The more severe the damage to the cells, the more obvious the symptoms will be. To prevent the development of parchment skin, it is therefore also important to avoid the triggering causes as much as possible.
