Patricia Araujo
Santhè Clinic, Brazil
Title: Evaluation of possible immunological variants influencing the clinical response to needling–a new approach in the treatment of vitiligo
Biography
Biography: Patricia Araujo
Abstract
For stable forms of vitiligo, many are the surgical techniques proposed, in order to improve patients’ response to NB UVB. The surgical techniques for the treatment of vitiligo can be classified according to the nature of the graft. Some surgical techniques are: Minigrafts; suction blister, in which the top of the blister induced by suction is used as grafts; split thickness grafts in which a sheet of 0.2-0.3 mm thick skin, consisting almost exclusively of epidermis is used as a graft; Needling, in which, with the use of a needle it is possible to transplant pigment cells from the edge to the center in the leucoderma area. After, the patients are submitted to phototherapy NB UVB, however, patients submitted to needling have different degrees of repigmentation. We wondered why and supposed that when transplanting cells from the edge compared with when transplanting cells at least 3 cm further, better results could be achieved in the second case. Considering vitiligo as an auto immune disease, we supposed that cells far from the edge could be in better immunologic conditions, compared to those near the edge, where the number of auto antibodies could be higher. In order to put this hypothesis to test, we have done needling in both sides of the same patient. On the right side of the body, we have done needling near the edge of the lesion and, on the left side, we have done needling, at least, 3 cm far from the edge.