Abstract
Atopic eczema is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder characterized by intensily pruritic eczematous skin lesions that typicall y develop in age-specific anatomical locations. There are numerous theories proposed to explain the development of this common disorder.
For years, the major theory was that patients had an aberrant and robust Th2 adaptive immune response to largely innocuous enviromental antigens. Recent reserch highlights the importance of skin barrier abnormalities and an inadequate host response to common cutaneous microbs, allergens and irritants as other highly plausible mechanism.
The main part of the article provides a summary of key therapies for atopic eczema from Guidelines for treatment of atopic eczema published in Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venerology in 2012.