Narrowband UVB treatment of progressive macular hypomelanosis

Little information is available on effective treatments for progressive macular hypomelanosis (PMH). To our knowledge, only one case of narrowband ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) therapy as an efficient treatment for patients with PMH has been reported in the recent literature.

We aimed to investigate the clinical features of PMH in Koreans and to determine the therapeutic efficacy of NB-UVB therapy in the management of PMH.

We performed an uncontrolled prospective study designed to evaluate the usefulness of NB-UVB therapy in PMH. A total of 23 patients with PMH were enrolled in the study. Of these, 17 patients underwent treatment with NB-UVB therapy once or twice weekly and were eligible for analysis. The remaining 6 patients were lost to follow-up before completion of the treatment. Repigmentation was evaluated by two dermatologists using photographic documentation.

In our trial, NB-UVB therapy was used successfully in 9 of 16 patients (56.2%), who showed more than 90% repigmentation. We found that 13 of 16 patients (81.3%) experienced at least 50% repigmentation. The repigmented sites showed an excellent color match. No signs of recurrence have been detected in 11 of these 16 patients (68.7%) up to the present time (13.2 ± 8.2 months of follow-up).

Our study includes a small number of subjects examined, and it was an uncontrolled and non-double-blind study.

The findings of this study suggest that NB-UVB therapy is an effective and safe method for use in the treatment of PMH.