Several innovations in dermatology in 2021 should be mentioned, particularly in the field of inflammatory and immunological diseases, such as atopic dermatitis, chronic urticaria, alopecia areata or Behçet's disease, but also in oncodermatology.
For the past few years, advances have been made in atopic dermatitis leading to a better understanding of the pathogenesis, identification of comorbidities, and emergence of new biological treatments.
In the course of the year 2021, international guidelines for chronic urticaria clarified the classification and therapeutic management of this disease.
Treatment of patients with alopecia areata became more promising through the advent of Janus kinases inhibitors, leading to encouraging results.
Apremilast became a new treatment option being reimbursed for oral ulcers in Behçet's disease.
In onco-dermatology, several new developments in both diagnosis and management were made:
- Reflectance confocal microscopy is a non-invasive optical imaging technique that was made available for managing patients with suspected malignant skin lesions;
- Chlormethine, a local chemotherapy gel, was shown to be effective and is thus being reimbursed for treating cutaneous T-cell lymphoma mycosis fungoides type in adult patients;
- Simulated daylight-mediated photodynamic therapy is a new technique, which was made available for the therapeutic arsenal designed to manage transplant patients with actinic keratoses.
Key Words
Abrocitinib, Atopic Dermatitis Score 7, apremilast, baricitinib, chlormethine, atopic dermatitis, dupilumab, actinic keratose, Behçet's disease, reflectance confocal microscopy, mycosis fungoides, simulated daylight-mediated photodynamic therapy, ruxolitinib, tofacitinib, tralokinumab, upadacitinib, chronic urticaria