During his presentation on treating patients with skin of color, Seemal Desai, MD covered interesting treatments for vitiligo. As we know, this is an incredibly challenging condition to treat and often has a profound impact on patients with skin of color, with whom the condition is more noticeable.
Dr. Desai covered oral mini-pulse therapy of systemic steroids to stabilize vitiligo and offered an excellent reminder that the dose of dexamethasone should be halved in children under the age of 16 (2mg daily on 2 consecutive days per week, as opposed to the standard 4mg). He went on to present data regarding the use of polypodium leucotomas in patients with vitiligo. He discussed a study which showed that patients treated for 26 weeks showed higher repigmentation compared to those treated with a placebo.
We’ve heard a lot lately about the positive attributes of polypodium leucotomas with regards to ultraviolet protection; this presentation alerted attendees to another potential use.