Photodynamic therapy: a treatment tool for hidradenitis suppurativa

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, recurrent, debilitating inflammatory disease of unknown aetiology. The current standard of care for HS includes antibiotics (oral/topical), retinoids (oral/topical) and intralesional steroids. However, the recurrence of the disease and the unsuccessful of the different treatments stimulate findings of different therapy using light source. Among these, photodynamic therapy with 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA-PDT) has been proposed by some authors recently. In this study we report the experience of 15 patients affected by HS resistant to conventional therapy treated with ALA-PDT.