Review of Comorbidities of Hidradenitis Suppurativa: Implications for Daily Clinical Practice

Abstract

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, recurrent skin inflammatory disease associated with a variety of comorbidities, like reduced quality of life, metabolic syndrome, sexual dysfunction, working disability, axial spondyloarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, and anxiety. Like psoriasis, HS patients have been found to have higher risk of cardiovascular death and suicide risk. Clinicians should be informed about these comorbidities so that appropriate screening is implemented. All this evidence suggests that for such a chronic, multi-comorbid disease, the use of validated outcomes to assess severity and effect of treatment, along with the use of clinically important patient reported outcomes, is essential. The potential of available treatments to negatively and positively affect these comorbidities should also be taken into account when designing treatment strategies. This review provides an outline of important HS comorbidities with emphasis on possible implications for daily clinical practice.

Keywords: Clinical significance; Comorbidities; Depression; Hidradenitis suppurativa; Inflammatory bowel disease; Metabolic syndrome; Quality of life; Working disability.