It has been published in “Journal Watch Dermatology” that, both excimer laser and tacrolimus ointment have definite but distinctly modest benefits for repigmentation in skin. Investigator said that, if we use a short course of excimer laser combined with tacrolimus ointment then, we can achieve a far higher rate of cosmetically relevant vitiligo repigmentation.
Many analyses have been carried out in order to evaluate the effectiveness of each treatment for vitiligo. For this purpose 14 people with symmetrical vitiligo were observed by physicians, for 12 weeks. There were 43 vitiligo patches that were either treated by laser or a combination of laser and twice-daily application of 0.1% tacrolimus ointment alone. The UV-resistant and non resistant areas have also been treated by these therapies.
Finally, these people showed that, they were more satisfied with combined-treatment than the laser-treatment for vitiligo alone. Because, combined-therapy had developed 75% repigmentation in 70% vitiligo patches then laser treatment alone. Laser treatment had showed only 20% repigmentation in vitiligo patches.
Similarly, in UV-resistant areas, 60% repigmentation was observed by combined-therapy; whereas, there were no repigmentation in areas treated by laser treatment. No repigmentation was found in any untreated control lesions. The side effects of these treatments were limited to typical UV-related areas such as the fingers and bony prominences. It was also noticed that doubling the course of therapy to the more traditional 50-plus treatments might improve these results.
