At the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Montefiore Medical Center, we are renowned for our specialized treatment of allergic skin disorders, including atopic dermatitis or eczema and urticaria or hives. Many healthcare professionals treat only the symptoms of allergic skin disorders because they assume that little can be done for patients who experience them. We take an aggressive approach to identify and treat the underlying causes that even those patients may not be aware of, including food allergies. By eliminating the sources of these skin disorders, we minimize our patients' symptoms as much as possible.
Patients often experience skin disorders because of exposure to very common food items that they've eaten for years without incident. These items often include:
Although a patient may have no reaction to each item individually, combined exposure causes an allergic reaction. We are committed to working closely with our patients to create a comprehensive elimination regimen to recognize the individual items that are creating problems until patients feel a significant improvement in their health.
Our team is constantly advancing treatment possibilities by participating in clinical trials investigating new allergy drugs and research into the treatment of urticaria or hives and atopic dermatitis or eczema. We continually recruit patients for our most innovative trials. One trial examines ways to manage hives that occur two to three times a week, for more than six weeks without response to regular treatment. Our approach is more effective than the standard method of medicating patients heavily and waiting for symptoms to disappear. The study looks at a combination of environmental and dietary elimination to treat hives.
We work very closely with the Division of Dermatology, which often refers many of its patients with hives or eczema to us for evaluation and care management.
Our specialized, groundbreaking treatments often help patients suffering from skin disorders to finally become relatively symptom free and experience a vast improvement in their quality of life.