Although there has been a concern for years that frequent use of alcohol-based products would lead to excessive dryness of the skin, a few earlier studies have suggested that appropriately formulated alcohol-based solutions containing emollients may prevent this problem.
22 Unlike the present study, most studies dealing with the effects of alcohol-based rinses or gels on the skin of personnel have used fixed protocols that did not mimic handwashing patterns on hospital wards.
12,15,22 For example, Newman and Seitz12 asked volunteers to wash both hands with a bar soap and then applied an alcoholic gel with emollients to one hand between handwashing episodes.
They found that the hand treated with the alcoholic gel exhibited less cracking, scaling, erythema, and dryness than the hand that was not treated with the gel.
However, their trial included only volunteers with normal skin, required washing hands with a bar soap for 30 seconds, lasted only 5 days, and did not occur in a clinical setting.