Response to treatment with phototherapy and associated factors in patients with atopic dermatitis

Introduction: Atopic dermatitis is an inflammatory skin disease that is part of the atopic spectrum, and it has the highest disease burden among all dermatoses. The objective of the study is to analyze the response to treatment of patients diagnosed with atopic dermatitis who received narrow-band UVB phototherapy (UVB NB). Methods: A descriptive follow-up study was carried out on a cohort where information was retrospectively collected from 280 patients who attended UVB NB phototherapy in a reference center between 2015 and 2022. The definition of improvement was determined by a decrease in the symptoms of eczematous lesions and the clinical control of the disease without relapse in the follow-up observed in the patient controls. In the statistical analysis, the results of the continuous variables were expressed in means and standard deviation and a bivariate analysis of nominal variables was performed. Results: The improvement rate was 72.14% of patients, 69.8% in women, with an average patient age of 21.22 ± 11.65 years. The average number of sessions to observe response was 16.8 sessions, which takes approximately between 5.6 and 8.4 weeks. It was significantly associated with tolerance to phototherapy, the number of sessions and the highest tolerated dose. Conclusions: UVB NB phototherapy achieves improvement in patients with atopic dermatitis. The need for a controlled sample in the future will be necessary to determine its greater effectiveness and determine its relationship with factors associated with the disease.