Soriasis

[Ravi1303]

My mother is 77 yrs old. From last 2 years she had some sort of skin desease on left leg and back. She gets iching. The normal skin ointment didnot work. Someone told me that it may be soriasis. What it is? And what is the treatment required? Pl. help me.

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

Though it appears that this may be Psoriasis, nothing can be said without a proper examination. I hope that she is doing fine at this point.

You may describe the lesion to us, so that we can answer your question better.

Lesions in psoriasis are recurrent in quite a few cases and therefore require long term medication.

As a first step, medicated ointments or creams like corticosteroids, cvutamin D analogues, anthralin, etc, called topical treatments, are applied to the skin.

If topical treatment fails to achieve the desired goal then the next step is to expose the skin to ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation or PUVA therapy (PSORALEN +UV-A). This is called phototherapy.

The third step involves the use of medications which are taken by pills or injection including methotrexate, cyclosporine and retinoids.. This approach is called systemic treatment.

Over time, psoriasis can become resistant to a specific therapy. Treatments may be periodically changed to prevent resistance developing.

More information on Psoriasis may be found at :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoriasis

and

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/psoriasis/article_em.htm

Hope this helped. Let me know if you may need any more help.
Best regards