Introduction - Esther van Zuuren, M.D.

[esther1]

Hello to everyone,

My name is Esther van Zuuren and I am working as a dermatologist in the Leiden University Medical Center. My expertise is allergy and the last years I am not seeing other patients anymore. However, in 2000 I was wondering if there was any evidence of rosacea treatments (we were standing with the whole staff around a patient with rosacea that already had received several treatments). So after a couse of evidence based medicine at the Dutch Cochrane Center, I started a systematic review "Interventions for rosacea" which was later published in the Cochrane Library.

We concluded hat there was enough evidence for the efficacy of topical metronidazole and azelaic acid with similar rates of adverse events as in the placebo groups. But there is an urgent need for better quality, adequately designed RCTs of the commonly used treatments for rosacea, for example tetracycline, minocycline, doxycycline, isotretinoin, and laser therapy. The impact of treatments on ocular rosacea should also be examined. Fortunately, rosacea is getting more and more attention the last years.

Best regards Esther