Combined Treatment with Tacrolimus and Excimer Laser in Vitiligo

A study published in Journal Watch Dermatology has shown that Excimer laser in combination with topical tacrolimus can be very effective, and may succeed even in difficult to treat areas like fingers and bony prominences.

It is interesting to note that Tacrolimus and Excimer laser both can bring repigmentation in Vitiligo affected skin, but both the remedies achieve only a modest degree of success. The Investigators just wondered if the combination may work better, and it did. They treated 43 patches in 14 patients with symmetrical Vitiligo, and treated one side of the body with either Excimer laser or Tacrolimus ointment twice daily, while the other side received a combination treatment. It was an intra-individual study in which one side of the body was used as the control. The results were better than what was being expected. All combined therapy patches showed at least some degree of repigmentation and 70% of these had extensive repigmentation (more than 75%). Laser therapy alone showed at least partial pigmentation in 85% patches, but only a meager 20% had extensive repigmentation. Even more significant was the finding that 60 % of the laser resistant areas like fingers and bony prominences also responded to the combination therapy. The patient satisfaction score were also far better in the combined therapy group. Independent reviews have regarded these findings to be promising