Emollients have proven effective in improving cutaneous xerosis in various populations; however, no clinical data are available for African patients. The observational study "Xerafrica" was conducted by dermatologists in seven sub-Saharan countries to assess the evolution of xerosis after an 8-week treatment with an emollient. Patients were children above 3 years or adults. Secondary objectives were to assess pruritus, improvement in symptoms, quality of life, satisfaction, and tolerance. An analysis of 185 patients was made. After 8 weeks of emollient treatment, the relative reduction of the "Scaling Roughness Redness Cracks" (SRRC) score was -83.9% and -80.4% in children and adults, respectively. The effect was significantly stronger when topical steroids were co-prescribed with the emollient and in patients with co-dermatosis. To a lesser extent, the effect of emollient was also observed at week 4. Similarly, pruritus and quality of life strongly improved during follow-up. Skin lesions improved in almost all patients, with a high level of satisfaction noted by both dermatologists and patients. The "Xerafrica" study addressed, for the first time, the treatment of xerosis by emollients in an African population. In this specific context, the emollient markedly reduced xerosis as soon as 4 weeks and resolved it almost totally by 8 weeks. The study confirms, under real-life conditions, the efficacy and tolerability of an emollient in improving xerosis.

a systematic review and patients interviews: perioperative death, death within five years, myocardial infarction within five years and the need to repeat the revascularization treatment within five years. A conditional logit model was used to estimate the coefficients that were used as the relative preference weights. RESULTS: A total of 160 patients completed the experiment. The majority of respondents (73%) preferred surgery and on average, patients valued a 1% increased risk of death within five years in the same way as a 2.8% risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), 1.1% risk of perioperative death, and 4.2% increased risk to redo the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: In this sample, most patients preferred surgery instead of angioplasty when facing realistic levels of risks and benefits. The coefficients ratios indicate that patients do not value all attributes similarly, highlighting the limitation of using composite endpoints. Patients valued 1%-increased risk of perioperative death in the same way as a 3.9% risk of repeat revascularization. Based on the 3.1% difference between perioperative mortality from angioplasty and surgery in Brazil, patients would prefer angioplasty as long as the risk of needing to redo the treatment is under 12.1% suggesting the necessity to incorporate the second-generation stents in the Brazilian public health system.