Vitiligo is a medical condition in which the skin loses its natural pigmentation and develops colourless patches that soon cover the entire body, changing the person’s complexion in those parts significantly. Debate over what exactly causes vitiligo is still ongoing, but it is found that people who have vitiligo, diabetes or thyroid running in their families are more susceptible to this disease.
Drastic alterations in the complexion can be traumatising for the patients, and hence the need for treatment is felt so urgently by them and their families. Spreading of patches can either be stopped completely or their growth can be reduced through treatment. Though for a patient whose condition has remained stable for about two years, artificial re-pigmentation can be considered as well.
Oral PUVA therapy is the most common vitiligo treatment, which involves taking a prescribed dose of Psoralen about 2 hours before exposure to UVA light or sunlight. As described at the Dr Mulekar, vitiligo treatment site, this treatment has been shown to work successfully in more than half of the patients.
Surgical options for vitiligo treatment have also become popular over the last decade. These usually involve a procedure known as miniature punch grafting. In this technique, a surgical punching instrument is used to make punches of around 2mm diameter on the donor’s skin, which are then grafted on to the patient’s affected areas. This procedure has to be followed by PUVA treatment to cause skin-pigmenting melanocytes to form again.
Suction blister grafting and ultra thin skin grafting, where a very thin layer of skin is grafted on to cause the transfer of melanocytes, are other grafting techniques that are used to treat vitiligo - not dissimilar to the system used for thermage. These treatments too are found to work remarkably well in curing the disease.
There are some other treatments available too, both in conventional medicine and in alternative therapies, which offer varying degrees of success. Besides, a complete cure for vitiligo may soon be a reality, with researchers making significant progress in stem cell research.