Eighty-four patients with alopecia areata of varying degree have been treated by intralesional injections of triamcinolone acetonide, using a needleless injector (Porto-Jet). Results indicate that, in limited alopecia, a high proportion will produce a rapid regrowth of hair. In established alopecia totalis, lasting hair growth is exceptional.
SUMMARY
With a needleless injector (Port‐O‐Jet), triamcinolone acetonide can readily be injected into the area of the finger‐nail matrix, through the posterior nail fold. 100 cases of various nail dystrophies have been treated in this way.
Dystrophies involving the nail matrix have been found to resolve substantially in the majority of cases. Onycholysis was found to improve occasionally, but generally relapsed rapidly. However, when onycholysis was associated with matrix abnormalities more consistent and prolonged remissions of the onycholytic areas occurred.
A Porto-jet injector was employed to treat forty-five cases of granuloma annulare and five cases of necrobiosis lipoidica with triamcinolone acetonide or sterile normal saline. Complete clearance of granuloma annulare lesions was achieved in nearly 70% of those receiving triamcinolone and in 44% with saline. Inadequate penetration of lesions was responsible for a number of failures. The rate of recurrence after treatment was high but retreatment was usually successful. In three cases of necrobiosis lipoidica complete resolution occurred, while in one, partial improvement was obtained. No serious complications of this type of treatment were observed.
SUMMARY.— A rapid, relatively painless method of treating psoriatic dystrophy of finger nails is described using a “Porton type” of needleless injector. Following treatment, 21 of 27 nails showed satisfactory return of normal appearance.
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