Primary cutaneous amyloidosis (PCA), either familial or sporadic, poses a therapeutic challenge. We conducted an open trial using thalidomide to treat three cases of familial and three cases of sporadic PCA, at initial dose of 100 mg/day. Dosage adjustment was made according to improvement of symptoms or patient's own choice. All except one sporadic case experienced moderate to significant relief on the symptoms of itching, over an observational period of 8 weeks by visual analog score (from 8.08 ± 0.88 to 1.60 ± 0.68, on average) as well as clinical amelioration of symptoms. Side effects included fatigue, drowsiness, numbness, and facial and leg edema in some of the patients. From the present observation, it seems that thalidomide is a promising drug to treat PCA.
© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.