What is vitiligo?
Vitiligo is a skin disease characterized by the appearance of well-demarcated white patches that can be progressive.
that can be progressive in course. It is a non-contagious disease of autoimmune origin, which causes an alteration in the aesthetics of a person who suffers from it.
What are its main causes?
The causes involved in the appearance of vitiligo, on the one hand there is an immunological alteration. It is known that some immune cells, the lymphocytes, will destroy the melanin, the melanocytes of the affected person.
melanocytes of the affected person. It is also known that there are genetic causes, there is a genetic predisposition, often relatives of people who suffer from vitiligo also suffer from vitiligo, and there are a series of alterations or factors that trigger the appearance of vitiligo, not all of which are known.
What are the symptoms?
Vitiligo is characterized by the appearance of white spots, spots lacking melanin on the body surface. It tends to affect more preferably the dry areas of the body surface such as elbows, hands, feet, knees, periorbital area or eyelids are characteristic areas. In these areas of lack of pigmentation the skin is unprotected and is more exposed to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. These spots are not symptomatic, they are not pruritic, but they do cause an important alteration in the quality of life of the person.
Who is affected by this disease?
It is a relatively common disease, about 1% of the population suffers from vitiligo in one form or another.
one form or another. It is equally common in men and women and can appear as early as childhood or can debut at an early age.
childhood or it can appear as early as adulthood. Those in which it debuts in adolescence or childhood usually have a greater genetic background than those in which it debuts in adulthood.
adulthood.
What treatments are available?
Although we do not have a 100% curative treatment for vitiligo, we do have different methods and therapeutics to correct or try to correct the disease.
methods and therapies to correct or attempt to correct these alterations in the pigmentation of the skin.
pigmentation. Of these, phototherapy is the most effective and within phototherapy, narrow band UVB rays and
narrow band UVB rays and the 308 nanometer excimer laser are of choice. With these treatments, in weekly sessions, we achieve very important repigmentations of the skin, of the pigmentation of the skin, reversing the normal color in these people.