Treatment of segmental vitiligo with normal-hair follicle autograft

BACKGROUND: Segmental vitiligo is a small subset albeit persistent form of focal vitiligo with dermatomal distributionand resistant to medical therapy. In recent years, surgical therapy as hair follicle autograft transplantationhas been a hot topic in management of segmental vitiligo. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of thismethod in segmental vitiligo lesions. METHODS: The study recruited 10 patients who suffered from resistant segmental vitiligo to evaluate the effectof transplantation of pigmented hair follicles on re-pigmentation of the affected area. In this method, one or twopunched-biopsy skin sample with a diameter of 5mm were harvested from occipital area of the scalps. Graftswere trimmed and divided into the follicular segments with at least one follicle in the interior and then insertedin the depigmented areas. Follow-up plan studies were scheduled to evaluate presence of pigmentation in theperifollicular areas. RESULTS: After 2 weeks, re-pigmentation was detectable surrounding the grafted hair follicles in 60 % of thecases. After 6 months, all of the patients had detectable re-pigmented area of about 2-9 mm. CONCLUSION: giving the surprising result of the study, hair follicle autograft transplant is an effective treatmentoption in the persistent segmental vitiligo.