Eczema (atopic dermatitis) is a skin disease. When a person has this disease, the skin becomes extremely itchy. Scratching leads to redness, swelling, cracking, “weeping” clear fluid, crusting, and scaling and sometimes, skin infections. Often, the skin gets worse (flares), and then it improves or clears up (remissions).
Atopic dermatitis is the most common kind of eczema, a term that describes many kinds of skin problems.