Background: Vitiligo is an acquired idiopathic disease that appears as skin depigmented patches due to a loss of melanocytes that are responsible for producing melanin pigment in the skin, hair, mucous membranes and retina.
Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of topical piperine oil combined with excimer light phototherapy in the treatment of non-segmental vitiligo: comparative intra individual study.
Patients and methods: Our study was carried out on 30 patients complaining of vitiligo from December 2019 to September 2020. Thirty subjects with two comparable patches were treated by excimer light phototherapy; one of them was randomly selected and treated with daily topical piperine oil at home. Patients were selected from out-patient clinic of Dermatology, Venereology and Andrology Department of Al-Azhar University Hospitals.
Results: The present study showed improvement in patches treated with piperine plus excimer light phototherapy as excellent response in 60% of patients, good response in 6.6% of patients, fair response in 26.6% of patients and poor response in 6.6% of patients. Improvement in patches treated with excimer light phototherapy only as excellent response in 6.6% of patients, good response in 46.6% of patients, fair response in 26.6% of patients and poor response in 20% of patients.
Conclusion: Using piperine combined with Excimer light phototherapy was a promising method for vitiligo treatment.