Significant improvement in repigmentation compared with narrowband UVB alone
TUESDAY, Jan. 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Intradermal platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection in combination with narrowband-ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) phototherapy improves repigmentation versus NB-UVB alone in patients with vitiligo, according to a study published online Dec. 23 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.
Zeinab A. Ibrahim, M.D., from Tanta University in Egypt, and colleagues examined the effect of PRP injection on the outcome of short-term NB-UVB in a cohort of 60 stable vitiligo patients. Every two weeks for four months the authors treated the left side of the body of each patient with NB-UVB alone and the right side with NB-UVB therapy plus intradermal injection of PRP.
The researchers found that the combination group (PRP plus NB-UVB) had a statistically significant improvement in repigmentation, compared with the NB-UVB group, with pigmentation detected in 43.3 percent of patients in the combined side versus 10 percent in the NB-UVB side after the third session.
“Intradermal PRP injection in combination with NB-UVB could be considered as a simple, safe, tolerable, and cheap technique for treatment of vitiligo,” the authors write. “It shortens the duration of NB-UVB therapy and is expected to increase patient compliance. Longer follow-up is needed.”
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