Vitiligo has no cure, but treatments can either restore the original skin color, or lighten the unaffected areas, or slow down progress.
There are medicines to help with this, and even therapies and surgeries, we have briefed on therapies & surgeries below:

1. Light therapy: Phototherapy using a narrow band of ultraviolet B (UVB) has either stopped or slowed down the progression of active vitiligo. You'll need therapy two to three times a week. And it will take 6 months or longer to see any effect of this therapy. There's a possibility of skin cancer developing so discuss at length what precautions to take, but the side effects are temporary and include: redness, itching, and burning.
2. Combination of psoralen and light therapy: This treatment starts with you consuming psoralen by mouth or applying it to the affected skin, following which you're exposed to ultraviolet A (UVA) light. This restores skin color to the affected light patches. Sometimes UVA is substituted with UVB.
3. Depigmentation: A depigmenting agent is applied on the unaffected areas of skin, which lightens the skin so that it blends with the discolored areas. This therapy is performed once or twice a day for nine months or longer.
   Side effects include: redness, swelling, itching, and dry skin.
   This therapy is permanent.
4. Skin grafting: Very small sections of your healthy, pigmented skin are transferred to those areas that have lost pigment. This procedure works for small patches of vitiligo.
   Possible risks are: infection, scarring, cobblestone appearance, spotty color or failure to recolor.
5. Blister grafting: Your doctor creates blisters on your pigmented skin, using suction, and then transplants the tops of those blisters to the discolored patches on skin.
   Possible risks are: scarring, a cobblestone appearance, and failure to recolor, additionally, skin damage caused by suctioning may cause another patch of vitiligo.
6. Cellular suspension transplant: Some tissue are extracted from your pigmented skin, which is then into a solution and transplanted onto the affected area. The results start showing up after four weeks.
   Possible risks are: scarring, infection, and uneven skin tone.

To avail treatments that slow down/possibly stop vitiligo, or to at least help in reducing their appearance, you should consider visiting a doctor, our page mentions them: Dermatologists in India.

Samruddhi Bhartiya

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