Results of Emollient Therapy in a Child with Severe Atopic Dermatitis Treated with Genetically Engineered Biological Drug: Clinical Case

Background. Baseline therapy for children with severe atopic dermatitis (AD) is crucial for achieving required clinical effect, regardless the systemic treatment variants. Clinical case description. The boy, 9 years old, had complaints on widespread rashes on the body and limbs accompanied by dry skin and itching and was diagnosed with AD. Topical glucocorticoids, course of local medium wave narrowband phototherapy of 311 nm, topical calcineurin inhibitors were used in the treatment but with weak positive dynamics. Genetically engineered biological therapy was initiated due to frequent relapses and lack of disease control. No persistent improvement was noted after 10 weeks of therapy. The child was hospitalized, cyclic biological therapy was continued, topical therapy was corrected, and skin care was modified, the emollient-plus drug was prescribed. Clinically significant decrease in EASI and CDLQI indices, as well as a decrease in SCORAD and NRS scores was noted 4 weeks after treatment correction and emollients implementation. Conclusion. Emollients are mandatory in the management of children with AD (despite the disease severity) according to clinical guidelines. This clinical case confirms the feasibility of therapy with emollient-plus agents, as it was possible to achieve the correction of epidermal barrier dysfunction and significant clinical effect.