Epidermal grafting for vitiligo in adolescents

Vitiligo is a significant problem in children. Many fail to respond to medical treatment and require melanocyte replenishment with one of the various surgical methods. Epidermal grafting using the tops of suction blisters has been found to be the most effective surgical procedure. However, the results of this procedure have never been delineated separately in adolescents and children. There are certain procedural and outcome differences in epidermal grafting among children and adolescents as compared to adults. We performed epidermal grafting in 15 recalcitrant patches of stable vitiligo in 10 children. Thirteen of 15 patches (86.66%) in 8 of the 10 patients (80%) showed more than 75% pigmentation. The results were much better than the overall response rate of 62% in 142 patients (adults as well as children) found in an earlier study. Literature analysis revealed the same trend in other studies.