Abstract
BACKGROUND: Chronic spontaneous urticaria is a debilitating disease for the patients and often considered by the doctors a very difficult disease to treat. In 2009 the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology/Global Allergy and Asthma European network/European Dermatology Forum/World Allergy Organization (EAACI/GA(2)LEN/EDF/WAO) published a revised version of the guidelines for the treatment of urticaria which included an algorithm for the treatment. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the clinical effect and the practical use of the algorithm. METHODS: The study was performed as a case-series study of all newly referred patients to our urticaria clinic over a period of 18 months. RESULTS: Our results show that the single most important and efficient treatment of urticaria patients is up dosing non-sedating antihistamines as recommended by the EAACI/GA(2)LEN/EDF/WAO guidelines. We did not find any predicting factors for responders to the antihistamine treatment, but about one third of the patients did not respond to the up-dosing of the antihistamines. CONCLUSION: Antihistamines seems to be the most efficient treatment for urticaria; other treatments such as montelukast, azathioprine, and mycophenolate mofetil may also be used, but only in combination with antihistamines and only in the case of an independent antihistamines treatment failure. The EAACI/GA(2)LEN/EDF/WAO guideline for the treatment of urticaria offers an efficient and simple guidelines for the treatment of urticaria.