About vitiligo

What is vitiligo?

Vitiligo is a disease in which the pigment cells of the skin, melanocytes, are destroyed in certain areas.

  • Vitiligo results in depigmented, or white, patches of skin in any location on the body.
  • Vitiligo can be focal and localized to one area, or it may affect several different areas on the body.
  • The exact cause of vitiligo is unknown, although most experts believe that it is an autoimmune condition in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys certain cells within the body.
  • Most people who have vitiligo will develop the condition prior to age 40; about half develop it before age 20.
  • Vitiligo tends to run in families.
  • Vitiligo is sometimes associated with other medical conditions, including thyroid dysfunction.
  • Vitiligo is not painful and does not have significant health consequences; however, it can have emotional and psychological consequences.
  • Some medical treatments can reduce the severity of the condition, but it can be difficult to cure.

What is vitiligo?

Vitiligo (vit-ill-EYE-go) is a disorder in which white patches of skin appear on different parts of the body. This happens because the cells that make pigment (color) in the skin are destroyed. These cells are called melanocytes (ma-LAN-o-sites). Vitiligo can also affect the mucous membranes (such as the tissue inside the mouth and nose) and the eye.

What are the symptoms for vitiligo?

Premature whitening or greying of your scalp hair symptom was found in the vitiligo condition

The main sign of vitiligo is patchy loss of skin color. Usually, the discoloration first shows on sun-exposed areas, such as the hands, feet, arms, face and lips.

Vitiligo signs include:

  • Patchy loss of skin color
  • Premature whitening or graying of the hair on your scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows or beard
  • Loss of color in the tissues that line the inside of your mouth and nose (mucous membranes)
  • Loss of or change in color of the inner layer of the eyeball (retina)

Vitiligo can start at any age, but often appears before age 20.

Depending on the type of vitiligo you have, the discolored patches may cover:

  • Many parts of your body. With this most common type, called generalized vitiligo, the discolored patches often progress similarly on corresponding body parts (symmetrically).
  • Only one side or part of your body. This type, called segmental vitiligo, tends to occur at a younger age, progress for a year or two, then stop.
  • One or only a few areas of your body. This type is called localized (focal) vitiligo.

It's difficult to predict how your disease will progress. Sometimes the patches stop forming without treatment. In most cases, pigment loss spreads and eventually involves most of your skin. Rarely, the skin gets its color back.

When to see a doctor

See your doctor if areas of your skin, hair or eyes lose coloring. Vitiligo has no cure. But treatment may help to stop or slow the discoloring process and return some color to your skin.

What are the causes for vitiligo?

Vitiligo occurs when pigment-producing cells (melanocytes) die or stop producing melanin — the pigment that gives your skin, hair and eyes color. The involved patches of skin become lighter or white. Doctors don't know why the cells fail or die. It may be related to:

  • A disorder in which your immune system attacks and destroys the melanocytes in the skin
  • Family history (heredity)
  • A trigger event, such as sunburn, stress or exposure to industrial chemicals

What are the treatments for vitiligo?

Treatment may help make the skin look more even. The choice of treatment depends on:

  • The number of white patches
  • How widespread the patches are
  • The treatment the person prefers to use.

Some treatments are not right for everyone. Many treatments can have unwanted side effects. Treatments can take a long time, and sometimes they don't work.

Current treatment options for vitiligo include medical, surgical, and other treatments. Most treatments are aimed at restoring color to the white patches of skin.

Medical treatments include:

  • Medicines (such as creams) that you put on the skin
  • Medicines that you take by mouth
  • A treatment that uses medicine plus ultraviolet A (UVA) light (PUVA)
  • Removing the color from other areas so they match the white patches.

Surgical treatments include:

  • Skin grafts from a person's own tissues. The doctor takes skin from one area of a patient's body and attaches it to another area. This is sometimes used for people with small patches of vitiligo.
  • Tattooing small areas of skin.

Other treatments include:

  • Sunscreens
  • Cosmetics, such as makeup or dye, to cover the white patches
  • Counseling and support.

What are the risk factors for vitiligo?

The skin doesn't have its characteristic color because it has lost its melanin. For some reason, the pigment-forming cells known as melanocytes have been destroyed.

We don't know why this happens. It might be an autoimmune condition, where your body's defenses turn on your own cells instead of attacking invading germs.

Although vitiligo affects all races equally, it's more noticeable in dark-skinned people.


 

Is there a cure/medications for vitiligo?

Vitiligo has no known cure. The purpose of medical therapy is to achieve a consistent skin tone by restoring colour (repigmentation) or removing the remaining colour (depigmentation).

Surgery

  • Skin grafts obtained from the patient: Skin is taken from one portion of the patient and utilised to cover another. Scarring, infection, and inability to repigment are all possible problems. it can also be called micro grafting.
  • Micropigmentation: A sort of tattooing that is typically applied to the lips of vitiligo patients.


Counselling

  • Vitiligo could cause psychological discomfort and impact a person's worldview and social interactions. If this occurs, your caregiver may suggest that you seek counselling or join a support group.


Repigmentation

  • Corticosteroids can be taken orally (as a tablet) or used topically for repigmentation (as a cream put on the skin). Results could take up to three months. In case of using it in a long run, the specialist would monitor the patient for any side effects, which may include skin thinning or striae.
  • Vitamin D analogues applied topically
  • Calcineurin inhibitors, for example, are topical immunomodulators.


Light therapy

  • For several months, two to three treatment sessions per week are required for narrow band ultraviolet B (NB-UVB).
  • Excimer lasers emit ultraviolet light with a wavelength similar to narrow-band UVB. since it is considered for small, targeted locations, it is effective for individuals who do not have broad or big lesions.
  • The combination of oral psoralen and UVA (PUVA) is used to cure vast areas of vitiligo skin. This treatment is believed to be quite successful for those who have vitiligo in the head, neck, trunk, upper arms, and legs.


Symptoms
Skin color loss that develops in patches, commonly on the hands, face, and areas surrounding body openings and the genitals,Premature whitening or greying of your scalp hair, eyelashes, brows, or beard,Color loss in the tissues lining the inside of the mouth and nose
Conditions
Pale white patches on the skin
Drugs
Pimecrolimus,Tacrolimus

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