A lack of sunlight and the covering of the patches under layers of clothes often result in many patients stopping their vitiligo treatment. It is important to be consistent and to turn to UVB Narrow band phototherapy to continue to repigment the white patches caused by vitiligo.
Phototherapy is a treatment based on ultraviolet radiation which offers major results in treating inflammatory skin illnesses (psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, among others) and neoplasica disease (mycosis fungoides).
In summer it can be treated with sunlight, but in winter other alternatives must be explored, such as UVB narrow band phototherapy. Its side effects are similar to those of exposure to sunlight: reddening and more or less intense burning, which is what helps us establish the duration and frequency of the sessions.
Phototherapy helps us repigment white patches, whilst simultaneously ensuring they do not extend any further.
During the treatment it is important to observe the response of the skin to the sessions, varying the next session based on whether or not erythema appears within the 24 hours following the irradiation. If erythema does not appear, the exposure time will be increased by 10% compared to the previous session, until the maximum time of four minutes is reached in each specific area.
At Abedul Laboratorios Farmacéuticos we market a UVB-nb phototherapy lamp for domestic use, which has a timer to ensure that the exposure times are precise.
It is also key to protect your eyes during the exposure, which is why our “phototherapy kit” includes protective goggles. The lamp has a radiation intensity of 7 mw/cm2 and should be positioned 3 cm from the area that requires treatment.
