A multi-speciality family hospital, Akshin Hospital at Marredpally in Secunderabad, opened a vitiligo clinic yesterday to treat leucoderma patients. The clinic offers the latest pathbreaking melanocyte transplantation that has been developed by two Swedish doctors Mats Olson and Lennari Juhlin at the university of Uppsala. Patients with large and stable patches of leucoderma, post-burn white patches and chemical leucoderma could look forward to getting normal skin colour.

The clinic has also installed a Puva Davlin machine imported from USA for treating patients with unstable patches. The introduction of these new facilities makes the clinic the first of its kind in Andhra Pradesh, according to Dr Vivekanand Bhatt, Consultant Surgeon from Noble Vitiligo Clinic, Bangalore, with whose association the new clinic will be functioning in the city.

Other existing clinics in the country offer various methods of treatment like punch graft, blister graft and skin graft with limited success.

Dr Bhatt said leucoderma was a common skin disease that affects 2-3 per cent of the Indian population and was being caused by the destruction of the colour producing cells in the skin called melanocytes. The largest number of leucoderma cases in the world are reported from India and Mexico. However, he could not say the reasons for the large number of cases in both the countries.

Dr Bhatt said leucoderma was due to genetic reasons, (a family history) or auto-immune condition, wherein the body's immune system produces destructive antibodies that destroy the melanocytes or segmental condition, wherein an offending nerve releases substances that destroy the melanocytes.

Vitiligo is a skin disorder that cannot be transmitted from one patient to another. Though mainly a cosmetic problem, this has profound psychological impact for the patient as the society tends to equate leucoderma with leprosy, thus sending the patient into a state of depression. The stress of treatment in vitiligo should be directed towards creating awareness about the disease and the mental status of the patient. Recent advances in biotechnology have made culture and transplantation of melanocytes possible.

The treatment eliminates not only the white blotches on the skin but also the scars that affect the mind.

The new treatment is based on separating melanocytes (pigment cells) from a small piece of skin, generally from the thigh, and transplanting it over a relatively large area of the skin affected by leucoderma. Dr Bhatt said at the Noble Vitiligo Clinic at Bangalorepatients with large and stable patches of leucoderma, thought to be incurable till now, are treated with 80 per cent success rate using this new method.

The surgery, costing up to Rs 15,000 depending upon the size of the patches, takes six to seven hours and the patient doesn't require hospitalization. The normal skin colour will appear within three to six weeks following the surgery, without any side-effects. Dr Bhatt said the new treatment was not used for patients with more than 30 per cent body surface affected by vitilogo. While cases of minimum two years of stable patches were successful, progressive leucoderma cases could not be treated by using this surgery.

Replying to a question, Dr Bhatt said it was not a plastic surgery as the procedure involved transplantation of melanocytes which was not done by plastic surgeons. This procedure was considered as a treatment modality for vitiligo and could not be considered as cosmetic surgery.

While the pigmentation on the patch treated would be permanent up to 90 per cent of the patients, there was a possibility of getting new patches. There was no medication at present which can prevent the development of new patches. Though the success rate was 80-85 per cent, the success rate was about 60 per cent in the case of lips and finger-tips as dermabrasion was difficult and plaster did not remain on the lips for a period of seven days.