Itchy Skin with Sodium Chloride Nebulizer

Maybe lay off of the saline for a day and see if that's makes a difference in your skin? So far, I have never heard of itchy skin due to 7% saline. Seasons change, turning on the boiler etc all dry out the air and therefore our skin. If the itchy skin continues after stopping saline definitely get it checked out. Itchy skin *can* be a prodrome of something new.

@bdross Welcome to Mayo Connect. As @scoop said, you can try stopping the saline for a week and see if it makes any difference. I tend to agree with your doc, that itchy skin is unlikely t be caused by nebulized saline.

Let's see if there might be other issues here that could be causing the itch.
What medications are you taking? Especially, are you on antibiotics for MAC?
Have you ever been told you have any type of liver dysfunction? Or any type of neuropathy?
Do you have seasonal allergies?

Like scoop said, itchy skin, if not relieved by moisturizer, can be a sign of something new going on.
Sue

I'm not on any medications and don't have any allergies or organ dysfunction. The itching started right when I began the nebulizer treatments. This can be a coincidence, but I did read that increased salt intake can trigger an immune response relating to t-cells. The nebulizer treatments have stopped my infections/fever from Bronchiectasis, so I'm a little hesitant about stopping my treatments as an experiment to see if the itching goes away. I did stop Albuterol two weeks ago thinking that I might have been allergic to that medication. It should be out of my system by now, but I still have the itching.

Maybe an alternative to stopping would be to cut the number of saline nebs by half, and just do airway clearance at the alternate time?
I know the saline stays in my lungs for up to 48 hours (I can taste it in my sputum.) That way you still have the benefit, but at half the dose.
Sue

I have similar reactio s . Its driving me crazy . Its now going down the back of my neck. Ive switched to doing 3% and 7 % back and forth.

@smc17 I did .9% when I was using the nebulizer and getting constipated from it. Still had the issue. Before that I didn't know there was .9%. Perhaps that might help with the itching.

I also have dry, itchy skin but only on my face and it started shortly after I began the nebulizer with 7% sodium chloride. I attribute it to the mist. I googled it, but couldn’t find much and so I just deal with it.

My hands and lips and eyes get really dry! I wear cheap reader glasses when nebulizing rather than my regular glasses. The mist out tons of tiny scratches in the lens of my good glasses. Also skin so rough and dry on my hands so I use nitrile gloves when it gets too bad.
Oh the little things we learn!

@cindip It looks like this might be your first post. Welcome! You probably rinse face and use moisturizer after nebbing. I haven’t been doing that, but plan to start. I have other issues causing dry eye and skin and hadn’t thought of the hypertonic saline contributing until these posts. I like Sue’s idea of an extension tube between mouthpiece and neb cup to get it out of face. I’ll call a respiratory supply store this week and share.

Same here.
Skin on face dry.
I use sunscreen, a hydrating face wash. Some mornings I just rinse my face with water.
I have dry eyes now and use heated eye patch at night and then eye gel.