Research Paper about Vitiligo

Vitiligo is the disappearance of pigment from skin in patches that causes milk-white lesions. The discolored areas typically get bigger over time. The condition can affect the skin on any part of the body including hair and the inside of the mouth. Vitiligo occurs when melanocytes die or stop producing melanin. It's unclear exactly what causes these pigment cells to fail or die. Vitiligo can be caused by an autoimmune condition, family history, stress, severe sunburn, or other skin trauma such as chemical contact. It is most common in people between the ages of 10 and 30 years. Risk factors that may increase your chance of developing vitiligo are family members with vitiligo and certain autoimmune diseases.

The main symptom is white patches on the skin. The patches may be any size or location. Other symptoms include premature whitening or graying of the hair on your scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows or beard, and loss of color in the tissues that line the inside of your mouth and nose. Vitiligo can start at any age, but usually appears before age 30. It's difficult to predict how the disease will progress. Sometimes the patches stop forming without treatment. In most cases, pigment loss spreads and eventually involves most of your skin. Occasionally, the skin gets its color back. The patches may be only a few areas or be more widely spread. Patterns include non segmental (most common) and segmental. Nonsegmental is present on both sides of the body, more likely to be generalized and spread, may involve the hair, usually autoimmune, with flare-ups. Segmental is present on one side of the body, may develop quickly, but then stop spreading, not usually autoimmune. Some of common sites of pigment loss are areas exposed to the sun, areas around body openings, areas where clothing or jewerly rub, body folds such as the groin and armpits, sites of injury, and the area around moles. Complications for people with vitiligo include increased risk of social or psychological distress, sunburn, eye problems, and hearing loss.

There are no known cures for vitiligo. Often, the longer the patches exist, the harder it is to repigment the area. Treatment is geared to decreasing the appearance of patches by repigmentation, slowing loss of color, decreasing the difference between affected and unaffected skin. A common type of repigmentation is Narrow Band UVB (nbUVB0) where psoralen is applied and then activated by UV light A. Skin creams can also be used to treat the affected area. Common skin creams are corticosteroid cream and tacrolimus skin cream, both of which can sometimes slow the loss of color and help return pigment to the skin. Another treatment option is skin grafting. Skin grafting can be used if the condition is not widespread and stable. Depigmentation medication is also sometimes used to remove the remaining pigment from your normal skin. It is only done if you have already lost a large amount of your normal skin color and repigmentation has not been successful. Complications of vitiligo are social stigmatization and mental stress, eye involvement like iritis, depigmented skin is more prone to sunburn, skin cancer, and hearing loss because of loss of cochlear melanocytes. Other complications are related to medications like skin atrophy after prolonged use of topical steroids.