[Treatment of adult type atopic dermatitis (AD) with bacterial vaccine prepared from individual cases (I)--Clinical study].

: Bacteria on the skin surface are well known to be one of the precipitating factors of AD. We have treated 68 severe cases of adult type AD with bacterial vaccines prepared for individual cases. Bacteria were collected from lesional skin of each individual and cultured. More than 50% of cases (36/68) showed improvement clearly. Five out of 9 cases without topical steroid showed good response to this treatment. In regard to its clinical response it is suggested that the treatment should be continued for at least 1-2 years, because these cases treated for less than 1 year have high risk of recurrence. Five cases responded excellent showed complete remission of dermatitis for 10 months to 2 years after stopping of this treatment. These results suggest that bacterial vaccine can be beneficial for the treatment of severe cases of adult type AD, which did not respond to other therapy.