Symptoms
The main symptom of vitiligo is loss of natural color or pigment, called depigmentation. The depigmented patches can appear anywhere on your body and can affect: Skin, which develops milky-white patches, often on the hands, feet, arms, and face. However, the patches can appear anywhere.
Complications
Complications of vitiligo are social stigmatization and mental stress, depigmented skin is more prone to sunburn, skin cancer, and hearing loss because of loss of cochlear melanocytes
Causes
Vitiligo is caused by the lack of a pigment called melanin in the skin. Melanin is produced by skin cells called melanocytes, and it gives your skin its colour. In vitiligo, there are not enough working melanocytes to produce enough melanin in your skin.
Risk factors
- Addison's disease.
- Pernicious anemia.
- Psoriasis.
- Rheumatoid arthritis.
- Systemic lupus erythematosus.
- Thyroid disease.
- Type 1 diabetes.
Treatment
- Protection from the sun. Sunburn is a severe risk if you have vitiligo. ...
- Vitamin D. ...
- Skin camouflage. ...
- Topical steroids. ...
- Topical pimecrolimus or tacrolimus. ...
- Phototherapy. ...
- Skin grafts / Vitiligo surgery