Seventeen patients with extensive subacute
prurigo, often resistant to different regimens of prior external and internal
therapy, were treated with PUVA bath
photochemotherapy (
psoralen bath followed by UVA irradiation) using bath water containing 0.5 mg/l of
8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP). In 15 of 17 patients treated, the skin lesions showed a significant improvement or even complete clearance within 8 weeks of
therapy. In two patients, only limited clinical improvement was achieved. Follow-up after 6 weeks revealed sustained improvement in the successfully treated patients. The mean cumulative UVA dose given until clearance was 30.3 (SD +/- 12.6) J/cm2. Therefore, a mean of 24.1 (SD +/- 5.3) PUVA bath treatments was necessary. No side effects were seen except phototoxic reactions in two patients manifested as slight
erythema. The results of this trial show that PUVA bath
photochemotherapy with
8-MOP is an effective therapeutic alternative to other known
therapies in subacute
prurigo. Compared to oral
PUVA therapy or other topical and systemic treatments, PUVA bath
photochemotherapy with
8-MOP shows an excellent efficiency-side effect ratio. The clearance of chronic skin lesions refractive to other topical or systemic treatments by PUVA bath
photochemotherapy with
8-MOP demonstrates that this
therapy can be even superior to other common therapeutic modalities used for subacute
prurigo.