Dermoscopy in Monitoring Treatment Response in Scabies: A Scoping Review

Background: Scabies is a World Health Organization-designated neglected tropical disease of rising incidence with increasingly reported treatment failure, making objective verification of cure important. Dermoscopy is well established for diagnosis, but its role in assessing treatment response has never been mapped. Objectives: To map how dermoscopy assesses treatment response in scabies-which markers, timepoints and cure definitions are applied, and how it relates to clinical and microscopic standards. Methods: A scoping review following PRISMA-ScR searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, EBSCO and Scopus (2016-2026, English) using a two-concept strategy (scabies × dermoscopy); eligibility required baseline dermoscopy plus at least one further, separately reported dermoscopic assessment during or after therapy. Two reviewers screened independently, supplemented by citation searching. Results: Ten studies were included. The same mite structure appeared under at least four names; assessment timepoints (day 2 to beyond day 28) and cure definitions were inconsistent. Dermoscopy was the genuine object of investigation in few studies; only one used ultraviolet-induced fluorescence to track response. Conclusions: Despite the disease's recognised importance, dermoscopic monitoring of scabies remains a declared rather than a designed research aim. No standardised marker, timepoint or cure definition exists; consensus standards analogous to the 2020 IACS diagnostic criteria are needed.