No Additional Benefit of Combining Fractional Carbon Dioxide Laser With Narrow-Band Ultraviolet B Phototherapy for Vitiligo: A Randomized Prospective Study With Half-Body Side Comparison

BACKGROUND: Narrow-band ultraviolet B (nb-UVB) phototherapy constitutes the gold standard treatment for vitiligo. Whether carbon dioxide (CO2) laser might increase the efficacy of nb-UVB is still a topic of debate. OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that the addition of fractional CO2 laser to nb-UVB may enhance repigmentation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fractional CO2 laser was applied with an interval of 2 weeks for 7 sessions, only to 1 of the 2 symmetrical vitiligo patches located on 2 different half-body sides. Patients received whole-body nb-UVB phototherapy 3 times a week, for at least 4 months. Repigmentation was scored with a quartile grading scale, with the help of a computer program using the photographs taken by the digital dermatoscope. RESULTS: Fifty-one symmetrical vitiligo patches of 30 patients were included. No statistically significant difference was found between the mean repigmentation scores for the laser and nonlaser sides (p = .11). CONCLUSION: Results of this study suggest that combining fractional CO2 laser with nb-UVB phototherapy with the regimen used in this study does not increase the repigmentation scores for vitiligo.