Wax therapy for dry feet in leprosy.

A comparative study of the effect of wax therapy and foot soaks on dry plantar skin was conducted in patients with leprosy. Thirty patients with varying grades of fissures and callosities were given wax therapy for feet, and 20 similar patients were given foot soaks. Patients given wax therapy felt subjectively much better than those who had soaking. Healing of cracks and fissures and softening of callosities was observed more frequently in patients with wax therapy. These differences are statistically significant. As an institutional method wax therapy has definite advantages for treating patients with fissures and callosities, whereas soaking of the feet is easy and readily available in patients' homes to restore the dry skin to normal.