Efficacy and safety of traditional and surgical treatment modalities in segmental vitiligo: A review article

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundSegmental vitiligo (SV) is a distinctive variant of vitiligo that is usually resistant to traditional treatments. Therefore, surgical therapies are mainstay of treatment in this type of vitiligo. To date, there is no review article or systematic review that evaluates specifically efficacy of treatment modalities on SV.AimTo evaluate current evidence regarding efficacy and safety of traditional and surgical treatment modalities in SV.MethodsWe conducted a search in PubMed, Embase, Web of science, and Google Scholar for key words of "vitiligo" AND "segmental" AND "treatment" OR "therapy" OR "surgical treatments" OR "medical treatments" OR "laser" OR "phototherapy". Inclusion criteria were English literature that investigated efficacy of different treatments on three or more cases on SV from January 2000 until July 2021.ResultsA total of thirty‐four articles were selected for detailed assessment. Different treatment modalities include medical treatment [systemic corticosteroid (SCS), topical CS (TCS), and topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCI)], phototherapy [narrow band‐ultraviolet B (NB‐UVB), psoralen and UVA (PUVA) and psoralen+solar exposure (PUVASOL)], laser/lights [helium‐neon and Excimer laser/light (EL)] and surgical treatments [punch graft (PG), follicular graft, suction blister epidermal grafting (SBEG), spilt‐thickness skin graft (STSG), and cultured/non‐cultured‐melanocytes‐keratinocytes transplantation (MKTP)].ConclusionThere were few randomized controlled trials (RCT) evaluating the efficacy of treatments in SV. Therefore, future high quality studies are required for better assessment of various treatment modalities in SV. Results of current evidence indicate resistance of SV to traditional therapies unless in patients with short duration of vitiligo. Therefore, surgical interventions are the first‐line of treatment in refractory cases, long‐standing disease, or presence of leukotrichia in depigmented patches.