Depigmentation involves fading the rest of the skin on the body to match the already-white areas. For people who have vitiligo on more than 50 percent of their bodies, depigmentation may be the best treatment option. Patients apply the drug monobenzylether of hydroquinone (monobenzone or Benoquin^®) twice a day to pigmented areas until they match the already-depigmented areas. Patients must avoid direct skin-to-skin contact with other people for at least two hours after applying the drug.

 

The major side effect of depigmentation therapy is inflammation (redness and swelling) of the skin. Patients may also experience:

 

 

Depigmentation is permanent and cannot be reversed. In addition, a person who undergoes depigmentation will always be abnormally sensitive to sunlight.

 

Surgical Vitiligo Treatment

All surgical treatments for vitiligo must be viewed as experimental because their effectiveness and side effects remain to be fully defined.

 

Surgical vitiligo treatments include:

 

In an autologous skin graft, the doctor removes skin from one area of a patient's body and attaches it to another area. This type of skin grafting is sometimes used for patients with small patches of vitiligo. The doctor removes sections of the normal, pigmented skin and places them on the depigmented areas. There are several possible complications associated with autologous skin grafting. Infections may occur at the donor or recipient sites. The recipient and donor sites may develop scarring, a cobblestone appearance, a spotty pigmentation, or may fail to repigment at all. Treatment with grafting takes time and is costly, and most people find it neither acceptable nor affordable.