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Inpatient management of severe psoriasis.
Nelson AA, Pearce DJ, Fleischer AB Jr, Balkrishnan R, Feldman SR.
Center for Dermatology
Research, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC
27157-1071, USA.
Historically, severe psoriasis frequently required inpatient hospitalization for
several weeks to reduce symptoms and prevent morbidity and mortality, Despite
declining hospitalization rates there remain patients who undergo severe, acute
psoriasis exacerbations requiring inpatient care. The majority of the literature
describes the treatment of psoriasis in the outpatient setting. We review the
inherent differences between the inpatient and outpatient management of
psoriasis along several dimensions and discuss an approach to the inpatient
treatment of severe psoriasis based upon therapeutic rate of onset, efficacy,
and safety. The inpatient setting benefits from and lends itself to use of rapid
acting, highly effective agents. Given the acute nature of psoriasis inpatient
episodes, the risks associated with long-term use of a treatment are far less
important in inpatient setting treatment planning than they are in the
outpatient setting.