A review of ultraviolet treatment for psoriasis at Waikato Hospital

Details of 79 courses of UVB and 40 courses of PUVA for patients with chronic plaque psoriasis at Waikato Hospital were prospectively collected when a new Phototherapy Unit opened. Efficacy was assessed by clearance rates (73% for UVB, 87.5% for PUVA). There was significant improvement in Psoriasis Disability Index, which was derived from a questionnaire assessing functional disability and completed by the patients before and after treatment. It took a median number of 24 treatments for psoriasis in the patients receiving UVB to clear, and for the PUVA patients the median was 19 treatments. The efficacy could not be correlated with skin type. Fifty per cent of UVB patients and 25% of PUVA patients received symptomatic burns, all localized and minor in nature. LIfetime PUVA dose was calculated, 90% of patients having received less than 400 J/cm2.