Comparing the etiology and treatment of skin fissure in traditional and conventional medicine; a brief review

Dry skin is a common problem which affects wound healing, severity of other skin diseases and quality of life of people. One of its undesirable effects is fissure that is a cutaneous condition in which there is a linear loss of epidermis and dermis with sharply defined, nearly vertical walls. In the present study, we have investigated the etiology of the disease and its treatments in conventional medicine and Iranian Traditional Medicine (ITM). Two traditional medicine references, current scientific data bases and medicinal texts were explored with the selected keywords such as "sheqaq-e-poosti", "skin fissure" and "dry skin" to find the etiology and treatment of skin fissure. From the view point of both conventional medicine and ITM, dry skin is the cause of skin fissure and some causes of dry skin are similar. In conventional medicine, moisturizers are mainly used for treatment of dry skin; while in ITM some herbs, oils and other natural remedies have been used. A topical dosage form which was called "qeirooti", a mixture of wax and oil, was used to treat skin fissure in ITM. It comprised of oily ingredients that acted as occlusives and also some herbal components that directly improved dry skin (similar to moisturizers). Components efficacy of traditional dosage forms for treatment of dry skin lead us to study about formulation of “qeirooti” for treatment of dry skin.