Ultrasound-mediated drug delivery in children with atopic dermatitis in a day hospital setting: clinical experience

Background. Modern therapy of patients with atopic dermatitis involves the long-term use of topical medications that can affect different stages of the disease pathogenesis. Topical glucocorticosteroids allow for a rapid clinical response in case of acute atopic dermatitis, but with prolonged use they have a number of undesirable effects. The introduction of calcineurin inhibitors into practice has made it possible to conduct proactive therapy of atopic dermatitis. Pimecrolimus (1% cream) in the treatment of mild to moderate atopic dermatitis can be used in children in the form of medicinal ultraphonophoresis and with prolonged use does not cause pronounced side effects. The duration of therapy is determined by both the regression of clinical manifestations, as well as the features of the previous course of the disease, and the frequency of relapses.

The purpose of the study. To evaluate the effectiveness of using 1% pimecrolimus cream for medicinal ultraphonophoresis in children with atopic dermatitis.

Materials and methods. The study was conducted on the basis of the day hospital setting of the Clinic of Adaptation Therapy at the Orenburg State Medical University. We observed 10 patients aged 5-8 years suffering from moderate atopic dermatitis in the subacute period who received the drug ultraphonophoresis on the UZT-1.01F device using 1.0% pimecrolimus cream as external therapy. To assess the clinical effectiveness of treatment, the standardized severity index SCORAD was used in the dynamics of therapy before and after 7, 14 and 30 days of treatment.

Results. The ultraphonophoresis method using 1.0% pimecrolimus cream made it possible to reduce the severity of atopic dermatitis by an average of 2.7 times according to the SCORAD index (from 50.5 ± 3.5 to 18.5 ± 2.5 points, respectively), which corresponds to the state of clinical remission of the process in 90% of patients with 10 procedures.

Conclusion. Our own clinical experience shows that medicinal ultraphonophoresis with 1.0% pimecrolimus cream as an additional method of external treatment of atopic dermatitis contributes to the prolongation of remission and long-term control of symptoms of the disease.

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