BALNEOPHOTOTHERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH PSORI ASIS AND ATOPIC-DERMATITIS

The effectiveness of salt water baths and subsequent selective ultravi olet phototherapy (SUP) was investigated in a prospective study on 40 patients with psoriasis vulgaris and atopic dermatitis. There were two groups with 20 patients each. The first group was treated with salt w ater (15%) that contained synthetic Dead Seas salt called ''Psorisal'' ; the patients in the second group had a bath in a 3% NaCl solution. A fter 4 weeks of daily treatment, we found that 80% of the patients in the group treated with ''Psorisal'' had significantly better results t han the second group. The subjective feeling of being ill had decrease d significantly in both groups by the end of the study. The only side effect we found was the occurrence of sunburn in few cases, but this o ccurred significantly less in the ''Psorisal'' group. Both groups gene rally accepted the balneophototherapy, so it can easily be employed on an outpatient basis.