Therapie der kutanen Vaskulitiden : Autoimmunkrankheiten

The term vasculitis denotes inflammatory conditions of the blood vessels which are mediated by granulocytes. These diseases are often confined to the skin, and the diagnosis and classification require histologic examination. Many cases of cutaneous immune complex vasculitis are elicited by bacterial and viral antigens and drugs, thus allowing causal treatment. However, the overwhelming majority of vasculitis only responds to symptomatic therapy with systemic immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory compounds. Among these, glucocorticoids and cyclophosphamide as well as pentoxifylline and dapsone have been proven to be very efficacious. The ingenious and combined use of these and other drugs enables us to treat nearly all types of cutaneous vasculitis with success and few adverse effects.