Review Article
Dermatology
Intralesional Treatments in Hidradenitis
Suppurativa: A Systematic Review
Carlos Cuenca-Barrales
a, b
Trinidad Montero-Vílchez
a, b
Manuel Sánchez-Díaz
a
Antonio Martínez-López
a, b
Juan Ángel Rodríguez-Pozo
a
Pablo Díaz-Calvillo
a
Salvador Arias-Santiago
a, b, c
Alejandro Molina-Leyva
a, b
a
Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinic, Dermatology Department of Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada,
Spain;
b
TECe19-Dermatología Clínica y Traslacional Investigation Group, Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria
ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain;
c
University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Received: September 23, 2021
Accepted: March 13, 2022
Published online: April 27, 2022
Correspondence to:
Salvador Arias-Santiago, salvadorarias @ugr.es
© 2022 S. Karger AG, Basel Karger@karger.com
www.karger.com/drm
DOI: 10.1159/000524121
Keywords
Hidradenitis suppurativa · Systematic review (publication
type) · Injections · Intralesional treatment · Triamcinolone
acetonide · Photochemotherapy
Abstract
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is an inflammatory chronic dis-
ease with difficult management. In some scenarios, intrale-
sional (IL) treatments could be useful. However, the scien-
tific evidence available is limited and heterogeneous. We
aimed to synthesize the available scientific evidence on IL
treatments in HS. We conducted a systematic review in July
2021. The clinical databases reviewed included MEDLINE
and Embase. All types of epidemiological studies and case
series with at least 10 patients were included; reviews, guide-
lines, protocols, conference abstracts, case series with less
than 10 patients, and case reports were excluded. Fifteen ar-
ticles representing 599 patients and 1,032 lesions were in-
cluded for review. Corticosteroid injections were the most
reported treatment. They showed effectiveness for the treat-
ment of acute inflammatory lesions and fistulas in terms of
reduction of lesion counts, symptoms, and signs of inflam-
mation and were safe in general terms. Light-based thera-
pies were the other main treatment group, including photo-
dynamic therapy and 1,064-nm diode laser. They were also
effective, but more local and systemic adverse events were
reported. Other treatments included botulinum toxin type B
and punch-trocar-assisted cryoinsufflation (cryopunch).
They were effective and safe, although were reported anec-
dotally. The main limitation of the systematic review was the
general quality of the articles included. In conclusion, IL
treatments such as corticosteroid injections and light-based
therapies seem to be effective and safe for both acute in-
flammatory lesions and fistulas, although more prospective
studies, with higher sample sizes and with standardized out-
comes are needed to provide more scientific evidence on
the subject. © 2022 S. Karger AG, Basel
Introduction
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, inflamma-
tory, recurrent, debilitating skin disease of the hair follicle
that usually presents after puberty with painful, deep-
seated, inflamed lesions in the apocrine gland-bearing ar-
eas of the body [1]. HS management is difficult and chal-
The first two authors, Carlos Cuenca-Barrales and Trinidad Montero-
Vílchez, equally contributed to the manuscript.