concerned when they see people with vitiligo on their hands and can often affect the way the world interacts with those who have it. It can be frustrating and embarrassing, and for some, it leads to clinical depression and anxiety. However, there is hope.
Doctors have discovered a combination of treatments that can return color to skin that has been lightened by vitiligo.
The new therapy includes the oral medication Xeljanz (tofacitinib) — a drug already approved for use in rheumatoid arthritis patients that dampens the body’s immune response — and ultraviolet-B light therapy.
If light therapy or laser treatments don’t work, your doctor may recommend treating vitiligo with skin grafting. This involves removing a small part of your skin from one area not affected by vitiligo and surgically implanting it to areas of pigmentation loss. It works best with smaller skin patches.
While skin grafting works, it doesn’t come without complications. Sometimes the process can create a cobblestone-like pattern of discoloration. In other cases, the affected patches may fail to regain pigment.
Like skin grafting, blister grafting involves transplanting small portions of your skin. With this procedure, your doctor uses