Hello, my name is Dr. Hamsa Subramanian
I practice allergy and immunology in St. Louis, Missouri
Today we are going to talk about atopic dermatitis
which is commonly, otherwise called eczema
Atopic dermatitis is a very chronic, debilitating disease
These are patients that have severe and intense itching
Different kinds of skin problems:
dry skin, red skin, peeling skin, infected skin, scarring skin
and it affects their quality of life
Many patients have sleep disturbances
Many others have a social stigma where it affects their social life
The first thing about eczema
the patient needs to be educated
You should be educated in a very scientific way
because this is a chronic disease
There is no cure, but we can always keep it under control
After education comes meticulous skin care
and the skin care should be tailor made for your skin
It should be ongoing
and it should even happen when your skin has no eczema lesions
Once you have understood the disease
once you know that you need to take care of your skin
then you need to see a specialist be it an allergist or dermatologist
eczema is one of many allergic diseases
And patients who have one allergic disease can have other allergic diseases
like pollen allergy, food allergy, asthma, and so on
and once you understand your disease
once it has been diagnosed
there are great, safe medications
In March of 2017, the FDA has approved two new medications for this condition
One is an ointment
this is very good news because it's approved for children two years and above
and it's used for moderate to severe eczema
The other, which is an injection
is approved for 18 years and above
for patients who have failed conventional therapy
for patients who have tried everything
who have been very compliant with their medication
but still have problems
talk to your allergist or dermatologist about these two new options
they work very well
their side effect profile is also pretty good
