Successful treatment of scleroderma with PUVA therapy

PUVA therapy was carried out on four patients with scleroderma; three of them had cutaneous manifestations of progressive systemic sclerosis and one other exhibited generalized morphea. PUVA therapy was given with daily doses of 0.25J/cm2 or 0.4J/cm2 for 3-8 weeks, resulting in total doses between 3.5J/cm2 and 9.6J/cm2. All four patients responded well to this treatment; improvements of hand closure, skin sclerosis index, and flexion of fingers or knee joints were obtained. Thus, PUVA appeared to be beneficial for treating scleroderma.