Hives is a skin disease that causes red welts on parts of the skin (urticarial lesion), and that causes extreme pain. The symptoms vary among different cases, but they tend to appear and disappear repeatedly. Hives not only causes itchiness, but also a tingling and tickling feeling. There are 2 main causes. Symptoms appear either spontaneously (acute) or appear after reacting to a specific stimulus (stimulus-induced). Most cases are acute whereby the specific cause cannot be determined. If the causes can be determined (such as food, medicine, sunlight, stress), it is important to avoid those stimuli.  

At our clinic, various treatment methods are used such as the use of antihistamine or anti-allergic medications or steroid external medication depending on the patient’s symptoms. It is important to treat the symptoms thoroughly even if it’s an acute case. In case of chronic hives, we use the biological drug Xolair®. For more information, please refer to Biological products. For intractable hives, we also help patients to search and determine the cause.