Multiple Eccrine Hidrocystomas: A Nonsurgical Treatment-Reply

In Reply.—  In the Shelleys'¹ text on dermatologic therapy, there is only one reference² (authored by me) concerning the nonsurgical treatment of eccrine hidrocystomas. That article describes only one patient. I would, therefore, like to relate my experience with topical anticholinergic therapy, as well as to discuss the above letter by Clever and Sahl.Since my article was published in 1982, I have treated three additional patients with multiple eccrine hidrocystomas. Two responded well (with a marked decrease in the size of all treated lesions that was maintained during therapy), and one patient failed to demonstrate a clear-cut response. All three patients had bilateral lesions, and all were initially subjected to a bilateral paired comparison (1% atropine ointment on one side vs vehicle alone on the other). This was important to do since eccrine hidrocystomas wax and wane in size from day to day depending on how much the patient