Medical and Surgical Treatment of Hidradenitis Suppurativa: A Review

Abstract

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease presenting with painful nodules, abscesses, sinus tracts, and scarring primarily affecting apocrine gland-rich intertriginous areas. HS prevalence ranges from 0.05 to 1%. The central pathogenic event in HS is believed to be the occlusion of the upper part of the folliculopilosebaceous unit, leading to the rupture of the sebofollicular canal with the consequent development of perifollicular lymphohistiocytic inflammation. The HS treatment choices are influenced by disease severity and its individual subjective impact, involving both medical and surgical interventions. However, given the chronic nature of HS, its destructive impact on social, working, and daily life of patients, its management is often frustrating for both the patient and physician. Hence, prompt and effective management strategies are urgently needed and a multidisciplinary approach is advocated. Therefore, in this article, we highlighted the main features of HS (clinical aspects, epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnostic criteria, classifications, comorbidities, and treatments), so that awareness of this disease might be heightened in primary care physicians and surgeons, who may be the first health care providers to see patients with this disease owing to its characteristic clinical presentation (inflammatory nodules, abscesses, sinus tract, etc.).