title: Use of 308 nm excimer laser for the treatment of chronic hand and foot eczema.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic hand and foot eczema (CHFE), a prevalent debilitating disorder affecting approximately 15% of the population, presents a socioeconomic and psychosocial burden for patients and often follows a chronic course, refractory to conventional therapies. Thus, a large need exists for more effective therapeutics; the excimer laser (308 nm) is effective for some inflammatory skin diseases, but its efficacy has not been evaluated for CHFE.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study is a retrospective chart review conducted on 30 patients with recalcitrant CHFE (19 with hand involvement, four with foot involvement, and seven with both) treated twice weekly with excimer laser (308 nm) single wavelength ultraviolet (UV)B radiation between January 2013 and December 2014.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Improvements in clinical scores included a 69% reduction in average physician's global assessment (PGA) scores (from 2.77 at baseline to 0.87 after treatment, P < 0.0001) with a parallel reduction in average modified total lesion/symptom scores of 70% (from 10.2 to 3.1, P < 0.0001). Only mild sunburn-like reactions were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This report evaluates excimer laser for patients with refractory CHFE and shows excellent and sustained efficacy for this treatment. Compared to other UV therapies, excimer laser offers lower cumulative doses of UV radiation by targeting specific areas. This effective treatment should be considered alone or in combination with other established or newer therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Anjali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shroff
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.|College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malajian
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Tali
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Czarnowicki
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Giselle K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Singer
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Mark G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Lebwohl
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Suhail
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.|Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guttman-Yassky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004485:Eczema / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005533:Foot Dermatoses / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006229:Hand Dermatoses / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D054018:Lasers, Excimer; D028022:Low-Level Light Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult