Objective To explore the effect of oral administration of traditional Chinese medicine combined with fumigation and washing in the treatment of elderly skin pruritus. Methods A total of 87 elderly patients with skin pruritus admitted to our hospital from April 2022 to March 2023 were randomly divided into conventional group (n=43) and combined group (n=44). The conventional group was treated with conventional treatment, and the combined group was treated with routine treatment+oral administration of traditional Chinese medicine combined with fumigation and washing. The degree of pruritus and the severity of secondary skin lesions, sleep quality and quality of life, incidence of adverse reactions, recurrence rate of skin pruritus and clinical efficacy were compared between the two groups. Results After treatment, the scores of pruritus degree and secondary skin lesion severity in the two groups were lower than those before treatment, and those in the combined group were lower than those in the conventional group (P0.05). The recurrence rate of pruritus in the combined group was lower than that in the conventional group (P