WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2023 -- For patients with moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), adalimumab combined with surgery yields greater clinical effectiveness and improved quality of life after 12 months compared with adalimumab alone, according to a study published online April 26 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Pim Aarts, M.D., from the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues compared the clinical effectiveness of adalimumab combined with surgery versus adalimumab monotherapy among patients with moderate-to-severe HS in a pragmatic randomized trial. Thirty-one patients were included in each of the arms. The difference in mean International HS Severity Score System (IHS4) reduction after 12 months of treatment was assessed as the primary outcome.

After 12 months of treatment, the researchers observed a significantly greater reduction in IHS4 for the surgery group versus the monotherapy group (–19.1 ± 11.3 versus –7.8 ± 11.8). A greater reduction was also seen in the Dermatology Life Quality Index after treatment in the surgery group versus the monotherapy group (–8.2 ± 6.2 versus –4.0 ± 7.7).

"The combination of adalimumab with surgery showed significantly greater clinical effectiveness and improvement in quality of life than adalimumab monotherapy, with a higher rate of patient satisfaction," the authors write. "The therapeutic option of adalimumab with surgery should always be proposed to patients with moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa."