Classification of Atopic Dermatitis into Digestive and Respiratory Disorders on the Basis of a Literature Study

Objectives: This study aimed to verify the classification of atopic dermatitis into the digestive and respiratory disorder on the basis of a literature study.Methods: We searched for the term "atopic dermatitis" in KISS, RISS, NDSL, DBPIA, and OASIS. On further filtering the searched paper further by including the terms "Korean medicine", "literature study" and excluding "acupuncture", we found eight papers relevant to the literature study of atopic dermatitis. The reviewed papers included keywords of Oriental medicine such as Sub-yeol (濕熱), Bi-heo (脾虛), Poong-sub (風濕), Hyeol-heo (血虛). We classified keywords as "digestive system" or "respiratory system" and compared the clinical symptoms of classified Each category keywords.Results: Atopic dermatitis was classified into four categories : acute digestive disorder, chronic digestive disorder, acute respiratory disorder, and chronic respiratory disorder. The four categories of atopic dermatitis showed differences based on region, dermal symptoms, associated symptoms, and affected age group.Conclusions and Discussions: This study suggests a new theory of Atopic dermatitis classification. The theory is similar to that stated in former classification; however, it focuses on the digestive and respiratory disroder. All of atopic dermatitis into digestive disorder show both digestive symptoms and dermal symptoms. However, atopic dermatitis into respiratory disorder shows only respiratory symptoms. Thus, this study can establish a relationship between Western and Oriental medicine's study of atopic dermatitis using keywords such as "digestive disorder" and "respiratory disorder".