Skin peeling in samll circles. ????

[poitz]

African American Male.
30 years old.
For the past 4 months or so I've been having this strange rash.
My fingertips, palm of my hands, and bottom of my feet are peeling in small circular shape(not a lot of circles just some here and there). These circles are extermly small. Not bigger than a pencil eraser(most of them appear on my the back of my fingers tips). They don't itchy or cause any kind of pain at all. I'm not sure what it's from. The ones on my feet have dissapeared completely, but the other day I noticed that I have a few of these circles on my left shoulder and one on my stomach near my pubic hair.
They seem to be most noticable as soon as I get out of the shower. Whenever I put any kind of lotion on you can't notice them at all, but as soon as my skin gets dry they start popping up agian.
Not sure what it is. As soon as some fade away others appear a few weeks later. I've changed soaps and everything. I went to my primary He said he thinks it's some kind of allergic reaction and he gave me some kind of steriod cream, but that's not stopping these small circles peeling things from popping up.
Thanks for any Info on this.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Dry skin.

Dr. Rockoff

[poitz]

All the circle peeling things are just about completly gone.
The thing with my shoulder is that it's extremly dry and flakey. I put lotion on it's mosit for a few hours and then it's back to being dry and flakey. Any Ideas?? Thanks

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Some people get peeling of the palms and soles as you describe.  It's called keratolysis exfoliativa.  Cause is unknown, significance nil, treatment unavailable.  It just goes away by itself.  However, I can't make sense of the spots on your left shoulder.  I can't think of anything serious or significant, but if the condition or conditions persist, I guess you'll need to see a doctor about them to get a specific diagnosis.

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff