Treatment with BIOSKIN EVOLUTION®
The minimum dose is established through exposure of both healthy skin and affected skin to increasing doses of the cold light. Once the dose with which to treat the affected area has been determined, the light beam is directed at the whole white patch in order to irradiate it uniformly.
The treatment is started at the most sensitive areas (for example, the eyelids) for a period that is gradually increased over time.
The treatment is completed when pigmentation is achieved, which may occur in a variable period from a few months to 2 years. The duration of the treatment depends mainly on the site of the patches (the face and trunk usually become pigmented again much more quickly than other sites) and on the clinical behaviour of the vitiligo at the time the patient starts the therapy (that is, whether the vitiligo is expanding or in a quiescent phase).
Re-pigmentation in vitiligo
The response in terms of re-pigmentation is usually seen within 3-4 months after starting the treatment, with the appearance of melanic spots with a diameter ranging from 0.1 to 5 mm.
Usually the tiny spots enlarge and merge together so that the area regains the colour of the healthy surrounding skin.
The clinical results are measured by comparing digital pictures of the patient’s skin at regular intervals of time (usually every 3 -4 months). Obtaining good pictures of a patient with vitiligo is not always easy, because the colour alterations are visible in patients with a dark phototype or during the summer season. Thus, in order to get a precise measurement of the size of the patches, a light system that artificially enhances the contrast between the healthy skin and the skin affected by vitiligo must be used. The best system so far is to illuminate the surface of the skin with Wood’s light: this type of ultraviolet light makes the white patches of vitiligo fluorescent.
Cold-light microphototherapy is particularly indicated in subjects with segmental vitiligo and in patients with bilateral, symmetrical vitiligo that does not affect more than 40% of the body’s surface area.
The advantage of BIOSKIN EVOLUTION® therapy is that is concentrated only on the areas affected by vitiligo and can be repeated every 2-4 weeks rather than requiring treatment sessions three times a week, as needed by other common phototherapies.
Microphototherapy should not be used in some subjects: people with diseases sensitive to light (systemic lupus erythematosus, xeroderma pigmentosum, porphyria, cutaneous viral infections in the acute phase, etc.) and also in subjects undergoing systemic or topical pharmacological treatment with photosensitising drugs or substances that are chemical unstable if exposed to ultraviolet rays.
BIOSKIN EVOLUTION® microphototherapy is not harmful in any other people, is easy to use and is truly effective at inducing re-pigmentation of areas of skin affected by vitiligo.
