Treatment of vitiligo with oral methoxsalen and UVA.

139 patients with vitiligo of long duration were treated with oral 8-MOP and UVA. 22 patients had focal and 117 generalized vitiligo. 27 had vitiligo on the skin of their face and/or neck and 58 on their hands and/or feet. Vitiligo of the face and/or neck responded very well to the treatment, 14 of 27 (52%) repigmenting completely, while the treatment results of hands and/or feet were poor (complete repigmentation in 2 of 58 cases (3%). In cases with focal vitiligo total repigmentation was observed much more frequently (in 11 of 22 cases) than in cases with generalized vitiligo (in 23 of 117 cases). Acute toxic effects were frequent, erythema in 55 cases (40%), nausea in 46 cases (33%), pruritus in 16 cases (12%) and headache in 8 cases (6%). Long-term adverse effects such as hypertrichosis and actinic keratoses occurred in 3 cases each. 6 patients (4%) had elevated transminases at some stage of the treatment. This did not cause withdrawal from treatment in any of the cases.