03/02/2023
Systemic Sclerosis
Systemic Sclerosis (like Dermatomyositis and SLE) can be treated with the Dexamethasone Cyclophosphamide Pulse (DCP/DP) treatment. This disease is considered incurable all over the world but we have been curing patients affected by this disease almost completely, for the last several years.
Systemic Sclerosis affects multiple organs in the body. The most characteristic is thickening of the skin all over the body, especially the peripheral parts. The skin also gets pigmented. The joints become painful and fixed, especially those of the hands. The patient may be unable to flex or extend the fingers, close the fists, or straighten the hands.
Raynaud’s phenomenon (blueing of the hands due to cold) occurs generally during the winter, and this is often associated with ulcers over the fingers and other joints. Ultimately the fingers may be lost.
The patient may have breathing difficulty (if lungs are involved) and/or also difficulty in swallowing food. There may be other symptoms as well. The disease is progressive and disabling but generally not fatal.
With the DCP therapy, we are not only able to stop further progression of the disease but also reverse the manifestations. Joint pains are generally the first to disappear, the skin starts becoming softer, pigmentation starts disappearing, breathing improves and swallowing food becomes easier.
Generally the patient is not aware that this disease can be cured and therefore comes to us when the disease is in an advanced stage. In some patients therefore, the damage by the disease may persist. For example, some of the joints may have become fixed, slight difficulty in breathing may remain and mild blueing of the fingers may continue. If the patient comes at an early stage, we have been able to induce complete recoveries.
This treatment generally takes 2 to 3 years, though some patients have been administered Pulse Therapy for 4 or even 5 years. The treatment is stopped only after the patient has recovered completely or shows no further improvement.
The residual symptoms continue to improve slowly with time, with symptomatic treatment.
Therefore the patients are advised to come at the earliest possible and obtain complete recovery from this disease.
