This clarifies terms for sensitive and difficult-to-treat areas in atopic dermatitis, indicating clinical implications for therapy.
"Special," "sensitive," and "difficult-to-treat" areas are frequently used interchangeably in atopic dermatitis despite describing distinct clinical constructs. Sensitive sites reflect disproportionate psychosocial and functional vulnerability, whereas difficult-to-treat areas denote therapeutic refractoriness. This distinction is clinically relevant because involvement of these locations may support consideration of systemic therapy independently of the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) score or body surface area. Precise terminology should guide, rather than obscure, therapeutic decision-making.
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Ramos et al. (2026) studied this question.
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