THERAPEUTIC STUDIES in toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), a rare but dramatic and life-threatening disease, have recently drawn a considerable amount of attention. Despite (or perhaps due to) the fact that a variety of possible therapeutic modalities have been proposed, usually based on a symptomatic approach and tried in single patients or small series, still no proven and widely accepted treatment regimen exists.
The development of a generally accepted treatment strategy has been hampered by the fact that the condition is part of a larger spectrum of reactive inflammatory skin diseases and thus heterogeneous; that it is rare and life threatening and thus precludes placebo-controlled studies; and that our knowledge on the pathogenic mechanisms involved are still only fragmentary.