IgA vasculitis (IgAV; also known as Henoch Schönlein Purpura) in children and young people is a common condition that typically presents to general practitioners or emergency physicians during the acute phase of the disease. It is a familiar condition to secondary paediatricians and it may require tertiary paediatric input.
Despite its fairly frequent presentation, there are discrepancies in the management of patients and this hinders improvements. Aligning the initial clinical management of IgAV, through the use of nationally agreed best practice recommendations, will hopefully reduce differences in the care patients receive across the UK and improve recognition of features that may warrant more specialist input.
The inclusion of a lay translation of the recommendations is designed to empower patients and their families to be involved in the initial management. We offer evidence-based practice guidelines, with research recommendations, covering the recommended initial management of IgAV in children and young people accompanied by suggested audit measures. This document aims to align care and standardise the management of children during the acute phase of the disease and it has been produced in parallel to a complementary document on the best practice guidelines for the complications associated with IgAV in children and young people.
At the time of writing, there remains very limited research in this field and the quality of available studies was notably poor. The production and dissemination of these clinical practice recommendations will hopefully facilitate further studies, including well-conducted clinical trials, thus strengthening the literature to contribute to evidence-based updates in due course.