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.