Atopic dermatitis is a chronic relapsing disease with acute flares. The standard therapy is
to treat acute flares using topical medications. The two most common classes of topical
medications for atopic dermatitis (AD) are topical corticosteroids and topical calcineurin
inhibitors.
Pimecrolimus and topical corticosteroids exert their activity by different mechanisms, there
may be a synergistic effect of the combination therapy. Therefore, a combination therapy may
provide a faster resolution of severe skin lesions and consequently reduce the duration of
the topical corticosteroid treatment. Another benefit of the combination therapy maybe the
use of a lower potency corticosteroid to achieve the same degree of clearance.
The hypothesis of this trial is that the combination of the two agents will lead to faster
clearance than the single agent of topical corticosteroids.