Summary

Lupus erythematosus is a multisystem disease with a wide range of manifestations, from relatively benign forms limited to the skin, to severe multivisceral damages with reserved prognosis.

Lupus erythematosus is still of great interest for clinicians and immunologists today, despite a century having passed since Biett’s first description of what he called “erytheme centryfuge” (1823), the term “lupus erythematosus” being used for the first time by Cazenave in 1838.

Lately a lot of issues have been clarified and new concepts came to light regarding LE. However, this disease attracts the attention of researchers as its etiology is still incompletely understood, its evolution is variable, with exacerbations and remissions, and the treatment is still a challenge, even considering the discovery of biological therapy acting at different stages in the immune pathogenesis of the autoimmune diseases, which changed the therapeutic strategy.

Treatment for patients with lupus erythematosus is intended to achieve disease remission and maintenance for as long as possible, also preventing side effects of therapies.

This article intends to underline the importance and complexity of treatment in lupus erythematosus, through research of recent scholarly literature.