title: Amnia for intractable skin ulcers with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa: report of three cases.
abstract: Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) is a disease characterized by recurrent blistering and chronic ulceration of the skin. In these patients, recurrent blisters frequently result in intractable skin ulcers due to impaired wound healing caused by mutations in the type VII collagen gene and malnutrition as well as by increased collagenase activity. To evaluate the efficacy of amnia for intractable ulcers in RDEB, we treated RDEB patients with amnia. The amniotic membrane was simply placed on the cleansed wound surface. The procedure was repeated once a week for up to 10 weeks. As a result, wound conditions improved remarkably after treatment with amnia for 2-10 weeks in all the patients, resulting in total re-epithelization of the ulcers. Amnia could be an effective therapy for intractable skin ulcers in RDEB patients, and should be considered as a re-emerging therapeutic option for the disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. t-hase@med.juntendo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mizoguchi
authors.forename: Kunitaka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Haruna
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: Shigenori
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muramatsu
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suga
authors.forename: Hideoki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Shigaku
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ikeda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000650:Amnion; D001684:Biological Dressings; D016108:Epidermolysis Bullosa Dystrophica / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012883:Skin Ulcer / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*