Successful treatment of hand and foot psoriasis with efalizumab therapy

Hand and foot psoriasis can appear in a plaque-type or pustular-type form. Any form of psoriasis that occurs on the hands and feet can have a debilitating effect on the patient's daily functions. Here we present a case series of patients with plaqueor pustular-type hand and foot psoriasis whose conditions were successfully managed with the biologic agent efalizumab. In many of these patients, the disease was refractory to multiple systemic psoriasis treatments. Treatment with efalizumab was effective and well-tolerated, with few adverse events. Many of the patients described here reported an improvement in both their physical functioning and health-related quality of life. The efficacy of efalizumab in treating these cases of hand and foot psoriasis suggests that it may provide therapeutic benefit.