Symptoms of Tinea Pedis

When it comes to tinea pedis, perhaps many people don’t know about it. This is mainly because many people don’t understand the name of tinea pedis. In fact, the so-called tinea pedis refers to what many people call athlete's foot, and tinea pedis has a great impact on patients. So, what are the symptoms of tinea pedis? This is actually what many people want to know. Because for ordinary people, they are often troubled by tinea pedis in real life.

People with tinea pedis generally have smelly feet, which is intolerable to many people. Especially when tinea pedis patients wear non-breathable sports shoes, the foot odor is particularly obvious. In addition, patients with tinea pedis generally also have small blisters. Well, let's take a detailed look at the specific symptoms of tinea pedis.

Tinea pedis (commonly known as "athlete's foot" or athlete's foot) is caused by fungal infection. The skin damage often occurs on one side (i.e. one foot) first, and then infects the other side after several weeks or months. Blisters mainly appear on the soles and sides of the toes, most commonly between the third and fourth toes, and can also appear on the soles of the feet. They are deep small blisters that can gradually merge into large blisters. A characteristic of the skin lesions of tinea pedis is that they have clear boundaries and can gradually expand outward. As the disease progresses or scratching occurs, erosion, exudation, or even bacterial infection and pustules may occur.

Clinical manifestations

The clinical manifestations are blisters, peeling, or pale and soft skin between the toes. Erosion or thickening, roughness, and cracking of the skin may also occur, and may spread to the soles and edges of the feet, causing severe itching. It may be accompanied by local suppuration, redness, swelling, pain, inguinal lymph node enlargement, and even secondary infections such as calf erysipelas and cellulitis. Due to scratching the itchy area with the hands, it is often transmitted to the hands and causes tinea manuum (tinea pedis). When fungi grow on the nails, it causes onychomycosis (onychomycosis). Fungi like moist and warm environments. The hot summer weather and sweating, as well as people wearing rubber shoes and nylon socks, provide a breeding ground for fungi. The condition usually improves in the winter, manifested by cracking of the skin. There are several types:

1. Blister type

It mostly occurs in the summer, and is manifested by the appearance of rice-sized, deep blisters between the toes, on the edges of the feet, and on the soles of the feet. They are distributed sparsely or in groups, with thick blister walls, clear contents, and are not easy to rupture. They fuse together to form multi-chambered blisters. When the blister walls are torn off, a honeycomb base and bright red erosive surface can be seen, which causes severe itching.

2. Erosive type

It manifests as local softening and whitening of the epidermal stratum corneum. Due to constant friction when walking, the epidermis falls off, revealing a bright red eroded surface; in severe cases, the skin between the toes and the junction of the toes and the soles of the feet can be affected, with severe itching, mostly between the 3rd, 4th, and 5th toes. Common in people with excessive sweating.

3. Scaly keratotic type

Symptoms include thickening, roughness, and scaling of the skin on the soles, edges of the feet, heels, and toes. The scales are in the form of flakes or small dots and fall off repeatedly.

Therefore, through the above introduction, we all have a certain degree of understanding of the disease of tinea pedis. In fact, tinea pedis needs to be classified into different types, specifically: blister type, erosive type, and scaly keratotic type. For these three different types of tinea pedis, their symptoms are usually different. Only after understanding the respective symptoms can we help treat tinea pedis.