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What Is Your Opinion About Persistent Hives On Which Differet Medication Has No Relief?
I have been battling with hives for the past 2 months. I have been to my doctor 3 times and have tried different things. I have been monitoring any triggers and can t come up with anything new. I tried taking allegra for the hives, and have since quit taking them. I then was prescribed Prednisone for 12 days., I had bad side effects from that and within 2 weeks the hives came back. I went to a dermatologist and he suggested taking 3 Zyrtek a day as well as prescribed hydroxyzine to be taken at bedtime. what is your thoughts?
posted on
Mon, 24 Mar 2014
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Tue, 29 Apr 2014
Answered on
Tue, 29 Apr 2014
Last reviewed on
Hello,
Thank you for posting on HCM.
Urticaria or hives is an allergic manifestation of skin, where an allergen leads to release of certain substances from your blood, leading to itchy skin rash and swelling over soft tissues.
At times, urticaria can be frustrating to both patient as well as doctor because of its multi-factorial etiology and difficulty in rooting out proper causative agent.
Its proper management requires thorough history, clinical and laboratory work-up.You may have to go for specific tests like patch test, food prick test, IgE antibody levels etc.
As for treatment part, best would be the avoidance of allergen as far as possible. Try to eliminate possible triggering foods from diet. I would also advise you various anti-histaminics for long duration( atleast 3 months) with or without oral corticosteroids. For non- responding cases there are many other drugs like dapsone, cyclosporine, montelukast, omalizumab etc which can be used in certain selected cases.
Hope this will help you in resolving your query.
Thank you
Dr Hardik Pitroda
Thank you for posting on HCM.
Urticaria or hives is an allergic manifestation of skin, where an allergen leads to release of certain substances from your blood, leading to itchy skin rash and swelling over soft tissues.
At times, urticaria can be frustrating to both patient as well as doctor because of its multi-factorial etiology and difficulty in rooting out proper causative agent.
Its proper management requires thorough history, clinical and laboratory work-up.You may have to go for specific tests like patch test, food prick test, IgE antibody levels etc.
As for treatment part, best would be the avoidance of allergen as far as possible. Try to eliminate possible triggering foods from diet. I would also advise you various anti-histaminics for long duration( atleast 3 months) with or without oral corticosteroids. For non- responding cases there are many other drugs like dapsone, cyclosporine, montelukast, omalizumab etc which can be used in certain selected cases.
Hope this will help you in resolving your query.
Thank you
Dr Hardik Pitroda
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