Three infants visited my clinic for the treatment of atopic dermatitis. All three infants showed full body atopic skin with high level of IgE and TARC in serum. Two of three cases had erythroderma, and the other one had persistent airway inflammation. Sufficient volume of steroid ointment treatment was necessary for all three patients to prevent atopic march. However, impoverish skin was found in all cases at initial administration because of long-term insufficient management. Since the impoverish skin is caused by chronic inflammation under the continuous activation of eosinophil which controlled by dominant effect of sympathetic nerve systems, Ogi-kenchu-to was an administrated for tree patients in combination with sufficient steroid ointment treatment. After 3-6 months later, both impoverish skin and atopic dermatitis were improved, and the serum level of IgE and TARC was decreased, which resulted in the decrease of the steroid ointment dose.
It has been difficult to continue steroid ointment treatment only for atopic infants with the impoverish skin. My cases indicated that Ogi-Kenchu-to might play an important role for the treatment of impoverish skin in patients with intractable atopic dermatitis. Although the efficacy of kampo medicine has not been clarified enough, several immune-pharmacological studies reported that components related Kampo formulae including Ogi-Kenchu-to might effect on the anti-allergic actions. In conclusion, the therapy in combination with Kampo formulae might achieve a better response for atopic dermatitis with impoverish skin, thereby should be extended to common use as complementary medicine.