Conclusions
The existing literature suggests that selected skin interventions, such
as tri-lipid emollient use from birth in high-risk infants and proactive
treatment of AD in early life might reduce the risk of AD and FA. There
remains, however, several gaps that could be addressed in future
studies. The window of opportunity in early infancy for skin treatment
for AD and FA prevention appears to be narrow, as AD onset is typically
in the first 2 months of life. Future research could focus on answering
specific gaps which include the type of emollient or anti-inflammatory
medication to be used as prophylactic or proactive AD therapy
respectively; duration of skin treatment; frequency of applications;
specific body sites, lesional vs non-lesional skin and total body
surface area to be treated; how to identify high-risk infants at birth;
and the utility of combination therapies or non-steroid-based
immunomodulators for pro-active AD treatment. Deeper endophenotyping to
identify biomarkers for high-risk infants who would benefit from these
interventions would further enhance the efficacy of targeted
interventions.