Clinical conversation for preparing and framing questions.

Preparation guide

Prepare for an HS Treatment Conversation

Understand the approaches that may be discussed, record what matters to you and prepare questions for your healthcare appointment.

Prepare step by step

Answer as much or as little as you like. At the end you create a one-page summary for your appointment. Everything you enter stays in your browser.

Step 1 of 5

What would you like to prepare for?

Select as many as apply. Your choices only organise your summary — they do not assess your condition or determine which options are suitable.

Treatment approaches that may be discussed

The approaches below are broad classes — not a ranking and not a recommendation. Every class uses the same neutral headings. Only your care team can judge which specific treatment is appropriate.

Local and topical approaches
What this approach aims to address
Address individual or localized lesions and symptoms at the skin surface.
What it may involve
Measures applied to the skin or used at specific individual sites.
How it is administered or performed
Applied by you at home or carried out in the practice.
Possible benefits
Can target a specific area and may avoid whole-body medicines.
Possible burdens and harms
May not be enough for widespread or deeper disease; skin irritation is possible.
Monitoring or follow-up
Usually reviewed at follow-up appointments.
What remains uncertain
How well local measures hold up over time varies from person to person.

Questions to ask

  • What is this approach meant to improve for me?
  • How long should I try it?
  • When should I get in touch if a lesion gets worse?
Systemic non-biologic medicines
What this approach aims to address
Reduce inflammation across the body when disease is more than local.
What it may involve
Medicines taken over a defined period.
How it is administered or performed
Usually taken by mouth, sometimes over weeks or months.
Possible benefits
Can reach several affected areas at once.
Possible burdens and harms
Possible side effects; some checks may be needed; not everyone responds.
Monitoring or follow-up
Periodic review, sometimes with laboratory checks.
What remains uncertain
Individual response varies; the duration is weighed case by case.

Questions to ask

  • What treatment goal are we aiming for?
  • What monitoring is required?
  • What do we do if it does not help enough?
Biologic or targeted immunomodulatory treatment
What this approach aims to address
Target specific parts of the immune response in moderate-to-severe active disease when other systemic treatment has not been enough.
What it may involve
Medicines that act on defined immune signals.
How it is administered or performed
Usually given by injection on a set schedule; often started and monitored in specialist care.
Possible benefits
May help active inflammation for some people when other options were insufficient.
Possible burdens and harms
Injections; infection-risk considerations; monitoring; not everyone responds; sometimes access or authorization steps.
Monitoring or follow-up
Response is assessed over defined intervals; checks as directed by the clinician.
What remains uncertain
Who responds best and for how long is individual; specialist assessment and the authorized product information are decisive.

Questions to ask

  • What treatment goal would we use?
  • How and when would response be assessed?
  • What risks are relevant in my situation?
  • What happens if it does not help enough?
Procedures and surgery
What this approach aims to address
Depending on findings, address recurring individual lesions, persistent tunnels, scarring or irreversibly damaged tissue.
What it may involve
A range of different procedures, depending on what is being treated.
How it is administered or performed
Performed in a procedure room or operating theatre; local or general anaesthesia depending on scope.
Possible benefits
Can treat or remove structural damage that medicines cannot reverse.
Possible burdens and harms
Wound care and recovery time; scarring; recurrence is possible.
Monitoring or follow-up
Wound follow-up; medical treatment sometimes continues before or after.
What remains uncertain
Recurrence and healing vary by technique, site and individual.

Questions to ask

  • What tissue or lesion is the procedure intended to treat?
  • What type of procedure is being proposed?
  • What wound care and recovery would be involved?
  • Would medical treatment continue before or after the procedure?
Wound, pain and supportive symptom management
What this approach aims to address
Make daily life more manageable: drainage, dressings, odor, pain and movement.
What it may involve
Dressings, wound-care routines, approaches to pain and practical support.
How it is administered or performed
Mostly at home with guidance; some in the practice.
Possible benefits
Can improve daily life alongside other treatment.
Possible burdens and harms
Take time and effort; do not by themselves change the underlying disease.
Monitoring or follow-up
Reviewed with the care team.
What remains uncertain
What helps most is individual.

Questions to ask

  • What wound care suits my situation?
  • What can help with pain or odor?
  • Who do I contact if a wound drains heavily or does not heal?
Combined medical and procedural management
What this approach aims to address
Address active inflammation and structural damage together, since they can coexist.
What it may involve
Coordinating medical treatment with a procedure — in sequence or together.
How it is administered or performed
Planned across dermatology and surgical care.
Possible benefits
May address both the inflammatory and structural parts of HS.
Possible burdens and harms
More coordination; timing questions; combined burdens.
Monitoring or follow-up
Shared follow-up across the care team.
What remains uncertain
The best sequence and timing are individual and still evolving.

Questions to ask

  • How would medical and surgical treatment be planned together?
  • In what order and with what timing?
  • Who coordinates the individual steps?
Continuing or reviewing the current plan
What this approach aims to address
Keep what is working and schedule a review — or take time before changing anything.
What it may involve
Agreeing what to watch, what would trigger a change, and when to review.
How it is administered or performed
No new intervention right now; a defined review point.
Possible benefits
Avoids unnecessary change and keeps stability — an explicitly valid option.
Possible burdens and harms
Symptoms may persist; clear review triggers are important.
Monitoring or follow-up
An agreed review date and warning signs.
What remains uncertain
How long to continue before reassessing is individual.

Questions to ask

  • What would trigger a change?
  • When will we next review the plan?
  • What warning signs should bring me in sooner?

Privacy

  • Everything you enter is processed only in your browser (session storage).
  • No answers, priorities or questions are sent to a server or stored by us.
  • No sensitive details are placed in web addresses (URLs) or sent to analytics.
  • Analytics count only anonymous events such as “started” or “printed” — after your cookie consent — never individual answers.

Development and review

Editorial version:

This guide is deliberately built as an informational, non-promotional resource. So you can judge the basis, we disclose how it was developed.

What this guide is — and is not

It explains broad treatment classes neutrally, helps you record priorities and questions, and links to independent, scientifically researched and editorially reviewed information.

It is not a treatment selector, not a diagnosis and not individual medical advice. Your answers never produce a treatment suggestion.

How it is built

The content follows current European guideline thinking on acne inversa / hidradenitis suppurativa and recognised standards for decision support (including neutral presentation, values clarification, source transparency and regular review).

The interactive layer presents treatment classes only — no brand names, manufacturers or individual active substances. No class is scored, ranked, highlighted or marked as preferred.

Review status

Editorial draft: prepared. Independent specialist review (dermatology and HS surgery): pending. German medicines-advertising-law review (HWG/AMG): pending.

A “100% HWG/AMG-proof” assurance is not possible. Before any production release, documented review by specialist legal counsel and by medical professionals is planned — covering the title, metadata, structured data, interactive behaviour, summary, privacy and both language versions.

Funding and conflicts of interest

There was no pharmaceutical-company funding or involvement in this guide.

The tool itself contains no advertising, product links or affiliate links. The website's general funding is disclosed in the advertising disclosure.

Updates

A fresh review is triggered when European guidance changes, an HS indication is approved, changed or withdrawn, important safety information changes, or a description becomes outdated.

Sources used

  1. S2k guideline on acne inversa / hidradenitis suppurativa (AWMF guideline register) Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF)
  2. Shared decision making, NG197 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
  3. Medicine information and EU authorisation status European Medicines Agency (EMA)
  4. Patient decision aid for hidradenitis suppurativa (randomised study), JAAD International, 2020 — PubMed search U.S. National Library of Medicine (PubMed)

Frequently asked questions

Does this guide tell me which treatment to choose?

No. The guide does not recommend or compare individual medicines and never turns your answers into a treatment suggestion. It helps you organise your priorities and questions for a conversation with a qualified healthcare professional.

Why are no medicine names shown?

The guide deliberately describes only broad treatment classes, not products or active substances. This keeps it neutral and informative without advertising prescription medicines. Which specific products may be relevant can only be assessed by your care team using the authorised product information.

Where are my answers stored?

Only in your browser (session storage). No answers are sent to a server or stored by us. Choosing “Start again” or closing the tab clears your entries.

Has this guide already had full medical and legal review?

The editorial draft follows recognised decision-support standards and medicines-advertising rules. Independent specialist review and a German medicines-advertising-law (HWG/AMG) review are planned before any production release. The current status is disclosed in the “Development and review” section.