Background: Chronic spontaneous urticaria is a debilitatingdisease for the patients and often considered by the doctorsa very difficult disease to treat. In 2009 the EuropeanAcademy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology/Global Allergyand Asthma European network/European DermatologyForum/World Allergy Organization (EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO) published a revised version of the guidelines for thetreatment of urticaria which included an algorithm for thetreatment. Objective: The objective of this study was toexamine the clinical effect and the practical use of thealgorithm. Methods: The study was performed as a caseseriesstudy of all newly referred patients to our urticariaclinic over a period of 18 months. Results: Our results showthat the single most important and efficient treatment ofurticaria patients is up dosing non-sedating antihistamines asrecommended by the EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO guidelines.
We did not find any predicting factors for respondersto the antihistamine treatment, but about one third of thepatients did not respond to the up-dosing of the antihistamines.
Conclusion: Antihistamines seems to be the mostefficient treatment for urticaria; other treatments such asmontelukast, azathioprine, and mycophenolate mofetil mayalso be used, but only in combination with antihistaminesand only in the case of an independent antihistaminestreatment failure. The EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO guidelinefor the treatment of urticaria offers an efficient and simpleguidelines for the treatment of urticaria.