Non friction type skin blisters, aka vesicle, are largely due to a disease, a skin condition or environmental factors. For the most part, skin blisters break easily and leave a yellow crust after liquid inside dries.
Blistering is your body’s natural reaction to a foreign substance, or what your immune system perceives as such. Blistering is a protective measure to isolate the bad stuff and protect the underlining skin during healing.
In the case of autoimmune blistering diseases, blisters are a result of “friendly fire” against its own healthy skin components.
Some examples of diseases, conditions or environmental instigators that may be causing your skin blisters or a solo skin vesicle:
- heat rash
- trench foot
- sun allergy
- TB skin test
- shoe allergy
- chicken pox
- athlete’s foot
- chigger bites
- algae blooms
- jellyfish sting
- fire ant venom
- electrical burn
- pressure ulcer
- genital herpes
- celiac disease
- severe frostbite
- millipede venom
- bullous diseases
- allergic vasculitis
- pustular psoriasis
- perioral dermatitis
- alpha hydroxy acid
- strep skin infections
- staph skin infections
- poison ivy/oak/sumac
- atopic/contact dermatitis
- hookworm creeping eruption
- chemical burns/chemical peels
- brown recluse spider bite venom
- staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome
- hand foot and mouth disease ~ coxsackie virus
- testosterone hormone replacement gels/patches
- adverse drug reaction ~ NSAIDs, moxifloxacin, risedronate, alendronate
Some of these blister creators cause pus filled blisters, like the venom depositors.
A blister on your lips or on your face around your mouth may be what’s commonly referred to as a “fever” blister or “cold” sore. These “have no fever nor cold” vesicles are most likely caused by the herpes simplex type 1 virus, which is highly contagious.
Acyclovir is a prescriptive treatment to decrease pain and speed healing of vesicle sores for those who have:
Over-the-counter treatment remedies are available for certain blister conditions, such as poison ivy/oak/sumac and fever blisters, aka cold sores.