LAUSR

DEAR EDITOR, Psoriasis is a common, chronic, relapsing, inflammatory skin disease characterized by multiple erythematous papules and plaques with silvery scales. It affects 0 5–3% of the world’s population. Recently, great advances have been made in the treatment of psoriasis, including the introduction of targeted biological agents. However, topical treatment remains important; most patients have mild disease affecting < 2% of the body surface area. Unfortunately, topical treatment is oily and sticky, and it takes time to reach full therapeutic effect, which results in poor patient compliance and consequently low therapeutic efficacy. The microneedle patch is a new drug delivery method that can effectively improve transdermal drug delivery. In this present study, we assessed whether a novel hyaluronic acid (HA)-based microneedle patch enhanced the therapeutic effects of topical agents in psoriasis. Ten patients with psoriatic plaques resistant to topical calcipotriol–betamethasone ointment (Daivobet ; LEO Pharma, Ballerup, Denmark) therapy for at least 4 weeks were enrolled from 1 May to 31 July 2016. One or more resistant psoriatic plaques were selected, and microneedle patches were placed over the thickest areas of the plaques after application of topical calcipotriol–betamethasone ointment. The patches were applied once daily at night for 1 week and removed the following morning. The patches were 26 9 26-mm-sized HA-