Body Image Quality of Life in Patients with Hidradenitis Suppurativa Compared with Other Dermatological Disorders.

Hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic skin disease characterized by inflammation and disfiguring scarring in the intertriginous body areas. Hidradenitis suppurativa is associated with overweight and impaired quality of life. This study sought to describe Body Image Quality of Life (BI-QoL) in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa and to compare it with patients with other skin diseases (controls). A total of 285 participants were recruited, 141 with hidradenitis suppurativa and 144 controls, at the Department of Dermatology at Zealand University Hospital, Denmark (during 2017-18). The Danish "Body Image Quality of Life Inventory" questionnaire measured BI-QoL. Patients with hidradenitis suppurativa had significantly lower mean BI-QoL than controls: Hidradenitis suppurativa BI-QoL (standard deviation; SD) -0.87 (0.98) vs. control BI-QoL (SD) 0.01 (1.11), p < 0.001. Predictors of negative BI-QoL were hidradenitis suppurativa, increased body mass index, female sex, symptoms of depression, and body mass index moderated by hidradenitis suppurativa. These data suggest that BI-QoL is impaired in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa compared with patients with other skin diseases after adjusting for confounders.

Wound drainage measurements: a narrative review.

Drainage from chronic wounds can significantly negatively impact a patient's quality of life. Change in severity of wound drainage is an important measure of treatment efficacy for wounds. This study reviews existing tools used to assess wound drainage. Qualitative drainage tools are overall less burdensome, and however, differences in user interpretation may reduce inter-rater reliability. Quantitative drainage tools enable more reliable comparisons of drainage severity and treatment response between patients but sometimes require equipment to administer, increasing responder burden. Gaps in the current wound drainage measurement landscape are highlighted. Many of the existing scales have not been validated in robust studies. There is also a lack of validated global drainage measurement tools for patients with chronic inflammatory skin disorders with drainage, such as hidradenitis suppurativa or pyoderma gangrenosum. Development of a succinct drainage measurement tool for inflammatory skin diseases where drainage is a prominent symptom will improve monitoring of meaningful treatment response.

Sub-classification of Hidradenitis suppurativa: a cross-sectional study.

The typical Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) patient is a young woman with axillary and groin involvement, but the spectrum of the disease presentation is broad and no internationally acknowledged sub-classification of the disease exists to date. It is however speculated that different, yet unidentified, subtypes may respond differently to different treatments or carry a different prognosis. Classification according to self-reported clinically meaningful outcomes for patients offer practical advantages. Our objective was to build an empirical framework for sub-classification of HS patients based on the frequency of HS flares in various anatomic locations, using a cross-sectional questionnaire-based design. All patients with a clinically confirmed diagnosis of HS registered at our department until March 1, 2017 were invited to participate. The frequency of HS flares in various anatomic locations was used for identification of possible HS subtypes using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. A total of 524 (62%) of 845 invited patients answered the questionnaire; 402 (76.7%) were female. From the cluster analysis, we identified two possible subtypes of HS, labeled the "upper type" and the "lower type". The "upper type" was characterized by repeated outbreaks in axillary and mammary regions. Meanwhile, the "lower type" was characterized by outbreaks in the inguinal, genital, perianal, and gluteal regions. Our findings support the notion that HS can be sub-classified and imply that the pattern of where lesions are located may be an important element in future HS sub-classification systems.