A proposed guideline for psoralen photochemotherapy (PUVA) with atopic dermatitis: successful therapeutic effect on severe and intractable cases.

Abstract Psoralen photochemotherapy with UVA (PUVA) has been reported to be successfully substitutional for, or an adjunct to, conventional treatments in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). Against the considerable advantages of utilizing PUVA for AD patients, however, it must also be balanced against the possible hazards for individual patients. We attempted herein to formulate a guideline for the selection of AD patients assigned to PUVA. According to this guideline, 114 patients were selected for PUVA treatment. Forty-five percent of the patients did not respond adequately to other conventional forms of treatment. Side effects from former treatments, particularly steroids, appeared in 39% of the patients. Subsequent to the treatments, the skin lesions significantly decreased in 81% of the impatients and 67% of the outpatients, while some patient's lesions disappeared, despite that other forms of treatment had been unsuccessful in many cases.