epidermal hydration and skin surface lipids in patients with long term complications of sulfur mustard poisoning

background: despite almost the three decades passed since the chemical attacks of iraqi’s army against the iranian troops, some veterans are still suffering from long-term complications of sulfur mustard (sm) poisoning, including certain skin complaints specially dryness, burning, and pruritus. we thus aimed to evaluate the skin’s water and lipid content in patients with a disability of >25% due to complications of sm poisoning and compare them with a matched control group. materials and methods: sixty-nine male participants were included in this study; 43 sm-exposed patients, and 26 normal controls from their close relatives. the water and lipid content was measured in four different locations: extensor and flexor sides of forearms and lateral and medial sides of legs by the corneometer cm 820/sebumeter sm 810. collected data was analyzed and p ? 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. results: the mean age of the patients and controls was 49.53 ± 11.34 (ranges: 40-71) and 29.08 ± 8.836 (ranges: 15-49 years), respectively. in the veterans group, the main cutaneous complaint was itching and skin dryness. cherry angioma, dry skin, and pruritus were significantly more common in the sm-exposed cases than in the controls. ( p = 0.01, 0.05, and 0.04, respectively). the moisture and lipid content of all areas were lower in the sm-exposed group, but it was only significant in skin sebum of lateral sides of legs ( p = 0.02). conclusion: exposure to sm could decrease the function of stratum corneum and lipid production as a barrier, even after several years of its exposure.