Combined use of systemic agents for psoriasis: a systematic review.

IMPORTANCE: Combined use of systemic agents may be necessary to achieve disease control in therapy-resistant patients. However, to our knowledge, an overview of evidence, including quality assessments, is not yet available, and no guidance on monitoring, contraindications, and interactions exists. OBJECTIVES: To summarize and critically appraise the evidence on efficacy and safety of combination therapy with systemic agents in plaque-type psoriasis. EVIDENCE REVIEW: Through March 2013, an electronic search limited to randomized clinical trials was performed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, and ongoing trial registers. The quality of evidence was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. FINDINGS: The initial search retrieved 2583 records, of which 17 met the inclusion criteria. Most studies favored combination therapy, albeit with low significance and low quality of evidence. Etanercept plus methotrexate was the only combination therapy investigated with an adequate sample size (n = 478). In the short term, this combination had superior efficacy with a moderate quality of evidence compared with etanercept monotherapy (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index, 75; relative risk, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.14-1.45). Although this finding coincided with an increase in adverse events (relative risk, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.10-1.42), the overall safety profile remained acceptable. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This systematic review provides a comprehensive overview on the validity of different systemic combination therapies. For most combinations, insufficient evidence is available. Initial results indicate that combined therapy with etanercept plus methotrexate may be beneficial in patients that are therapy resistant under intensive follow-up. Dose reductions should be taken into account to minimize adverse effects.

Parental experiences with propranolol versus oral corticosteroids for complicated infantile hemangioma, a retrospective questionnaire study.

BACKGROUND: Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) are common and mostly emerge in the head-neck area. Recently, propranolol has been replacing oral corticosteroids (OCS) as the main treatment modality. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore the impact of treatment, contentment with treatment outcome and quality of life for families and patients with cervicofacial IHs, treated with propranolol versus OCS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was performed using questionnaires administered by a phone interview. Parents of 16 patients with a cervicofacial IH treated by OCS and 16 patients with an IH of similar localization and overall severity treated with propranolol were interviewed. The questions concerned the impact of treatment at different time periods and the contentment with treatment results. Parents were also asked to give a quality of life (QoL) score (1 to 10) for different time-points. RESULTS: Parents from the OCS group seemed to feel significantly more worried during treatment. Moreover, parents from the propranolol group perceived less negative impact on normal life issues, including work and vaccination of their child. During and after treatment, the parents of propranolol-treated IH patients gave significantly higher QoL scores. CONCLUSION: Propranolol seems to change the impact of IHs, their treatment and the quality of life. Propranolol treatment interferes less with normal issues in daily life, compared to OCS. These findings underline propranolol as the first choice treatment for life- or function-threatening IHs.

The psychosocial impact of an infantile haemangioma on children and their parents.

Infantile haemangiomas (IHs) are common, benign vascular tumours in children that appear soon after birth and regress before the age of 12 years. Physicians have always been concerned about the considerable psychosocial impact these lesions might have on children and their parents. This is the first critical review of studies on the psychosocial impact of IHs on children and their families. Future directions for research are suggested. As propranolol is becoming the most common first choice treatment for IHs, this article discusses its use in the light of this review.