Effective Treatment of Refractory Alopecia Areata in Pediatric Patients With Oral Abrocitinib

The document discusses a case of an 11-year-old male patient with refractory alopecia areata (AA), a T-cell-mediated autoimmune disease causing non-scarring hair loss, who showed improvement after treatment with abrocitinib, a highly selective JAK1 inhibitor. The patient had been suffering from patchy diffuse alopecia for over 6 years and had not responded well to previous treatments including topical and oral corticosteroids, topical minoxidil, systemic compound glycyrrhizic acid, and traditional Chinese medicine. After 4 months of oral abrocitinib treatment (100 mg once a day), hair regrowth occurred in the affected area of the scalp, and no adverse reactions have been found so far. This is the first case of pediatric refractory AA treated with abrocitinib, suggesting that it may be an alternative treatment for children with refractory AA who fail to respond to conventional therapy. Further prospective studies are needed to evaluate its efficacy and safety.