Acute Porphyria Treatment
When treating acute porphyria it focuses on providing rapid treatment of the symptoms and preventing complications. These treatments include:
- Stopping medications that may have triggered symptoms
- Medication to control pain, nausea and vomiting
- Prompt treatment of infections or other illness that may have caused symptoms
- Intravenous sugar (glucose) or sugar taken by mouth, if able, to maintain an adequate intake of carbohydrates
- Intravenous fluids to combat dehydration
- Injections of hemin, a medication that is a form of heme, to limit the body's production of porphyrin (Site1 tab)
Cutaneous Porphyria Treatment
Treatment of cutaneous porphyria focuses on reducing the amount of porphyrin in the body as well as the amount of sunlight the body receives. These may include:
- Drawing a certain amount of blood from one of your veins reduces the iron in your body, which decreases porphyrins.
- Drugs used to treat malaria — hydroxychloroquine or, less often, chloroquine — can absorb excess porphyrins and help your body get rid of them more quickly than usual.
- Daily doses of prescription beta carotene. Beta carotene may increase your skin's tolerance to sunlight.
- Triggers, such as certain medications or too much sunlight, which activated the disease, should be reduced or removed if possible.
- Supplements may be recommended to replace vitamin D deficiency caused by avoidance of sunlight. (Site1 tab)