Failure of oral gastrointestinal dialysis as therapy for psoriasis.

Ten patients with chronic psoriasis were treated twice weekly with gastrointestinal dialysis in an attempt to clear psoriatic skin lesions with this method alone. In a fasting state in the morning, each patient drank from 3 to 6 L of an electrolyte solution containing 220 mmole/L of mannitol during three hours. The procedure was well tolerated, safe, and effective in causing copious diarrhea. However, after two months of therapy, these patients showed no substantial improvement in their psoriatic skin lesions.