Hidradenitis Suppurativa: Modern Concepts of Pathogenesis and Therapy; Successful Experience of Adalimumab Therapy

Abstract

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that mainly affects the sites of the apocrine glands; HS is characterised by relapsing painful knots and abscesses, leading to the formation of fistulas and scarring. Modern ideas about the pathogenesis of HS allow us to consider it as a kind of inverse acne, since the mechanism of development of HS and inverse acne does not differ. Detailed studies of patients with HS in recent years have provided the basis for several authors to suggest that HS is a systemic, chronic, immune-mediated progressive disease. The key role of the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor Į (TNF-Į) in the development of the inflammatory process during HS was determined. Elevated TNF-Į levels are found in the blood and HS lesions, having a positive correlation of the TNF-Į level with the severity of the disease. At the present time, the treatment with a TNF-Į blocker, adalimumab (the only one genetically engineered biological preparation approved for treatment of HS/inverse acne in the world and in Russia), is recommended as a first-line therapy in the absence of an adequate response to standard systemic therapy in the case of active HS of moderate or utmost severity. The presented clinical case confirms the fact that for HS patients it is very important to determine the correct diagnosis as quickly as possible and to prescribe the appropriate treatment according to the developed recommendations. Erroneous diagnoses, inadequate therapy (surgical treatment, short courses of antibiotics, etc.) contribute to the progression of the disease, to the appearance of common symptoms due to the attachment of secondary infection and increase in general intoxication, to limited working capacity, to the emergence of persistent and gross scars, as well as to the deformations of affected skin. Our clinical case of adalimumab (Humira) treatment of a patient with an extremely severe HS form demonstrated that the application of this medication can be effective and well tolerated.

Keywords

• suppurative hidradenitis
• inverse acne
• pathogenesis
• systemic therapy
• adalimumab