Chronic Urticaria: Comparisons of US, European, and Asian Guidelines

Chronic urticaria is a common dermatological condition that has significant impact on quality of life. Multiple international societies have published guidelines, and although these guidelines generally agree on the definition of urticaria, as well as approach to diagnosis and management, there have been notable differences to date. These differences have been reconciled by the recent publication of the 2017 revision and update published by the EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO.

The 2017 revision and update to the guidelines for chronic urticaria are the most comprehensive consensus document to date, and reconcile previously existing differences between the US, European, and Asian guidelines. The purpose of our review is to present basic background on urticaria and discuss classification, diagnosis, and most importantly, management. We present differences from previous US, European, and Asian guidelines and reconcile the previous differences by summarizing the 2017 revision and update published by the EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO.