Treatment Strategies for Hidradenitis Suppurativa and Atopic Dermatitis, with Steven Daveluy, MD

During the 2025 New Wave Dermatology Conference, the HCPLive team spoke in an interview with Steven Daveluy, MD, associate professor and program director at Wayne State University, about treating conditions such as hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) and atopic dermatitis.

Daveluy was asked several questions that had been touched on in several of his sessions during the conference. This interview segment features his responses related to the aforementioned dermatologic conditions. HCPLive first asked him about in-office procedures related to treating HS.

“I am always excited for dermatologists to do in-office procedures for HS, because there are so many things that we can do that can have a huge benefit,” Daveluy explained. “Intralesional steroid injections can help, and I usually do it at a concentration of 40 milligrams per cc, because at that dose, it's been shown to resolve lesions. We can also do de-roofing, which is basically taking the roof off and letting it heal by secondary intention. Then there's a technique called cryoinsufflation, where you can use your liquid nitrogen and spray it into tunnels to get them to go away.”

Daveluy was also asked by the editorial team about ways to perform the procedure known as deroofing for patients living with HS.

“Deroofing for hidradenitis suppurativa is a really simple technique, and all dermatologists already have the skills,” Daveluy said. “You just numb [the area] around the lesion, and then if you can feel where the tunnel is, you can probe into it. Then you just take the top of it off. Sometimes there's this sort of gooey lining on the inside, so you scrape that out with your scalpel or with gauze or a curette. Then, you just stop any bleeding and let it heal.”

Later, Daveluy was asked about different examples of integrative treatments for patients living with atopic dermatitis.

“There are some great integrative treatments for atopic dermatitis,” he explained. “So, for rice paper, you can create a mask. It's the same rice paper you would buy to make spring rolls, and you just cut it into pieces, a piece for the forehead, for the cheeks, for the chin, dip it into some warm water for a few seconds, and put it on your face. The starch that is in the rice has been shown to be beneficial for as a moisturizer and sort of soothing.”

When patients are dealing with eczema on their face, Daveluy noted, such individuals can wear this mask to bed and it may help them to fall asleep.

“There are a few oils that have been shown in studies to be beneficial for eczema such as coconut oil, virgin olive oil, and sunflower seed oil,” Daveluy said. “So if patients are looking for a more natural moisturizer, that's an option that they can turn to. I like to combine it with a massage, because there was a study in children that showed if parents did 20 minutes of massage a day, it helped their eczema improve and then they felt less itchy. So you can combine the two and massage in your moisturizer or your oil, and it's a good bonding time for parents and kids, and it'll help their eczema.”

To find out more about subjects such as these, view the full interview segment posted above.

The quotes used in this summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.