Revealing the therapeutic potential of dupilumab: A case report on managing post-COVID-19 chronic pruritus in a geriatric patient

ABSTRACT

This case report describes a 73-year-old Caucasian man who had COVID-19 and developed chronic, severe pruritus. The patient’s pruritus did not respond to numerous conventional and unconventional treatments, highlighting the difficulty of treating post-COVID-19 dermatological symptoms. Pruritus in the patient was significantly reduced with dupilumab, a monoclonal antibody that inhibits interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 signaling. The report describes the history of the patient’s pruritus, from the development of symptoms after COVID-19 infection through several treatment modalities that were not effective, and, finally, the resolution of the patient’s symptoms after starting dupilumab. The patient’s recent SARS-CoV-2 infection may have caused the immune-mediated process shown by the patient’s histopathological results. Even though these results are based on a single case, they highlight COVID-19’s ability to cause chronic pruritus and dupilumab as a possible treatment approach. Further study is needed to confirm these findings and investigate possible immunological connections between COVID-19 and chronic pruritus.

Keywords: COVID-19, pruritus, geriatric dermatology