Long-term results in the treatment of vitiligo with oral khellin plus UVA

This study was performed to assess the effectiveness and short-term and lon g-term safety of oral khellin plus UVA (KUVA) in patients with vitiligo. Tw enty-eight patients (13 males and 15 females; mean age, 34 years; [age rang e, 15-51 years]) most with extensive generalized vitiligo of more than 6 mo nths duration had received KUVA at sometime during a 14-year period. The re sponse to treatment (i.e. repigmentation of depigmented areas) was rated re trospectively comparing photographs taken before and after therapy and corr elation analysis revealed that it was statistically significantly linked to the number of KUVA treatments (r = 0.833, P = 0.001) and to total cumulati ve UVA dose (r = 0.840, P = 0.001). Of 17 patients who had continued therap y for longer than 3 months, 7 (41%) had a good response (i.e., more than 70 % repigmentation of lesional skin) after a mean of 194 treatments (range, 6 9-386 treatments) and a mean cumulative UVA dose of 2,036 J/cm(-2) (range, 690-4,411 J/cm(-2)), whereas lower response grades were observed in the pat ients with lower treatment numbers. The most common short-term side effect was mild nausea, occurring in 8 of 28 patients (29%), and mainly in the fir st week(s) of treatment. Follow-up assessment at a mean of 40 months (range , 4-110 months) after the end of KUVA therapy available in 23 of 28 patient s revealed no skin cancers or actinic skin damage in any patient. These dat a indicate that KUVA seems to be safe as well as effective for vitiligo, pr ovided treatment is administered long enough.