Effectiveness of complex treatment associated with ozone therapy on clinical indicators and immunity status in children with atopic dermatitis and concomitant allergic rhinitis

Background: atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis in children

Atopic dermatitis (eczema) and allergic rhinitis (hay-fever-type symptoms) often occur together in children and can be slow to settle with standard treatment alone. This study looked at whether adding ozone therapy to a child's usual comprehensive treatment could speed up recovery and improve immune measures, in youngsters with moderate-to-severe forms of both conditions.

Study design: 100 children, standard care versus standard care plus ozone

This was a comparative study of 100 children aged 5 to 10. One group (43 children) received standard comprehensive therapy, while the second group (57 children) received the same standard therapy plus two courses of ozone. Ozone was given in three ways: topical ozonated olive oil applied to affected skin (twice daily for 15 days), rectal insufflation of an ozone-oxygen mixture (every other day, eight procedures) and an intranasal ozonated oil spray. Clinical progress and a range of immune markers were tracked. The children were not randomly assigned between the groups, so this is a controlled comparison rather than a randomised trial.

Findings: faster and longer-lasting remission in the ozone group

The authors reported that children who also received ozone therapy reached clinical remission faster (symptoms easing in around 14.2 days versus 18.7 days), had more of their immune parameters return to normal, and stayed in remission for roughly twice as long (about 8.5 versus 4.2 months). They also observed increased expression of Toll-like receptors 2 and 6 on immune cells during remission, which they interpreted as a sign of stronger non-specific defence against bacteria.

What the authors concluded

The authors concluded that adding ozone therapy to comprehensive treatment helped children with atopic dermatitis and concomitant allergic rhinitis achieve faster clinical remission and better-normalised immune parameters, and they recommended wider use of this approach as part of comprehensive care.

Limitations of this study

The children were not randomly assigned, and with no randomised, blinded design it is harder to rule out other explanations for the differences reported. We were also unable to confirm the exact publication details (year and DOI) of this source, which appears in a Russian-language journal, so its citation should be treated as provisional. The study came from a single centre and would need independent, randomised replication to confirm the findings. As with any therapy in children, ozone treatment should only be considered under the guidance of the child's doctor.