Therapeutic spot and regional dermabrasion in stable vitiligo.

Therapeutic spot or regional dermabrasion was carried out at 64 sites located over cosmetically unimportant hairy areas (52) and non-hairy areas (12) in 15 cases of stable vitiligo. Lesions were individually dermabraded first with either electric or manual dermabraders till pinpoint bleeding occurred. They were further deep demabraded to an appropriate depth manually. On healing, all the 64 sites were further treated with PUVA or PUVASOL. Out of 52 hairy sites 46 sites (88.5%) showed total pigmentation, 2 showed partial pigmentation and in 4 sites there was no pigmentation. Out of 12 non-hairy sites, 10 sites (88.3%) showed only perilesional hyperpigmentation along the borders with no change in the remaining 2 sites. Side effects were superficial scarring (5) and hypopigmentation (4) which improved over next 6 months. Complications were deep scarring (3) and secondary infection (1). Therapeutic spot or regional dermabrasion is useful alone or in combination with PUVA/PUVASOL for treating stable vitiligo (hairy areas).