Prednicarbate emollient cream 0.1% in pediatric patients with atopic dermatitis.

Atopic dermatitis, common among infants and children, is an intensely pruritic, chronic, inflammatory dermatosis that is traditionally treated with emollients for dry skin and topical corticosteroids for inflamed areas. A multicenter, 3-week, open-label study evaluated prednicarbate emollient cream 0.1%, a nonhalogenated midpotency corticosteroid, in 55 patients aged 4 months to 12 years who were diagnosed with atopic dermatitis. No suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis was evidenced by serum cortisol levels obtained before and after intravenous injection of 250 mg of cosyntropin on days 1 and 22, and biochemical tests detected no other systemic effects. Adverse events were few and within the expected range. Prednicarbate resulted in improvements based on global evaluations and sign/symptom scores. In conclusion, this study found prednicarbate emollient cream 0.1% to be safe and effective for the treatment of atopic dermatitis in pediatric patients for up to 3 weeks.