Vitiligo

• Avoid friction/injury like scratches and sunburn
• Take care of your physical and mental health, and eat a balanced diet

• Many patients respond to light therapy (NB-UVB), which may be light therapy combined with oral or topical therapy, and can be carried out at our Westmead and Darlinghurst sites. Extended courses of therapy are often needed for a good outcome and a noticeable benefit is not usually seen until around four sessions of therapy.
• Excimer UV-light targets the skin’s immune system to stimulate pigment cells to repigment and is good for small patches.
• The Skin Hospital offers a Home-Based Phototherapy for some patients, ask our nurses about this option.

In people with limited stable vitiligo, surgery might be an option. This involves using the patient’s own skin with pigment cells that is transplanted from the unaffected skin into the affected areas. Techniques used for melanocyte transplantation include punch grafting, as well as suction blister grafting and novel cellular grafting techniques, which are all offered at The Skin Hospital.

Skilled use of camouflage specialist make-up products can help to cover up affected areas while waiting for the medical treatment to start working. A nurse-led camouflage clinic is available at Darlinghurst and Westmead.

Medications can be used to lighten the darker surrounding skin (to reduce contrast) in circumstances where the affected skin is not responding to other treatments, or when the vitiligo is particularly extensive.

There is currently a lot of research investigating treatments for vitiligo and our specialists will be able to discuss newly available treatment options with you. There are also opportunities to participate in clinical trials if available and you meet the required criteria.