Efficacy of suction blister epidermal graft without phototherapy for locally stable and resistant vitiligo

Abstract

Introduction:Surgical methods for treatment of vitiligo include punch grafts, blister grafts, follicular grafts and cultured melanocyte grafts. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of suction blister grafts for treatment of vitiligo, without the use of phototherapy.Materials and Methods:This clinical trial study was conducted on 10 patients with vitiligo that was resistant to usual treatments and with limited involvement in the affected sites. We used cryotherapy and a manual suction device for blistering at the recipient and donor sites, respectively. The blister was separated and fixed with sutures and a dressing to the recipient site. Repigmentation of lesions was evaluated monthly for 6 months after treatment. Repigmentation rates higher than 90%, between 71%–90%, from 51%–70%, and less than 50% were graded as complete, good, moderate, and poor, respectively.Results:Ten patients (five females with a mean age of 23.2±3.96 years and five males with a mean age of 30.60±4.15 years) were enrolled in the study. Reponses to treatment after a 6-month follow-up were ‘complete,’ ‘good,’ and ‘moderate’ in 7 (70%), 1 (10%), and 2 (20%) patients, respectively.Conclusion:With this technique, patients with restricted sites of involvement, that did not respond to the usual treatments showed very good repigmentation without any additional phototherapy over a 6-month follow-up; moreover, there were no side effects such as scarring.

Simplified non-cultured non-trypsinised epidermal cell graft technique followed by psoralen and ultraviolet a light therapy for stable vitiligo

“…in their pilot study on suction blister grafting technique reported complete re-pigmentation in 70% of the cases. [ 9 ]…”

“…Stable vitiligo, which is described as vitiligo in which there is no expansion of existing lesions and no appearance of new lesions in the past 1 year,[ 2 3 4 ] can be treated by various surgical procedures. Commonly practised surgical procedures include Thiersch graft,[ 5 6 ] mini graft,[ 7 ] epidermal cellular grafts,[ 8 ] punch grafts, suction blister grafts,[ 9 ] melanocyte culture (MC) and grafting[ 10 ] and autologous non-cultured melanocyte grafting. [ 11 12 ] Non-cultured melanocyte grafting techniques were developed to overcome the time-consuming process of culture while at the same time providing acceptable results.…”

Long-term follow-up and donor site changes evaluation in suction blister epidermal grafting done for stable vitiligo: A retrospective study

“…Blister grafting has shown to given good results even without postgraft phototherapy in other studies too. [ 8 ] With the advent of newer and effective modalities of treatment for stable vitiligo, like autologous melanocyte transfer, the role of relatively older techniques like SBEG has become debatable. However, with our study we would like to reiterate the importance of SBEG as a very effective therapeutic modality for localized and stable vitiligo lesions, especially in the context of resource poor settings.…”

Suction blister epidermal grafting for vitiligo involving angles of lip: Experience of 112 patients

“…Maleki et al . [ 22 ] reported that complete repigmentation was observed more in male patients than in female patients treated with SBG, though it was not statistically significant; however, they had a very small sample size of only 10 patients. We observed a similar outcome in our study.…”