Chemical peeling with phenol: For the treatment of stable vitiligo and alopecia areata

Abstract

Chemical peeling with 88% phenol was carried out on 142 siles of stable vitiligo (hairy-126, non hairy-16) and on 69 sites of alopecia areata (AA). After cleansing and defalting.phenol was applied on affected areas till a uniform frost appeared. On healing,all the lesions of vitiligo showed perifollicular pigmentation in hairy areas and perilesional repigmentation in non hairy areas. These were further treated with PUVA/PUVASOL. After the healing, 82.5% of hairy sites and 81.3% of non hairy sites showed repigmentation. In cases of AA, patients developed vellus hair. In AA, 72.5% had good regrowth and 27.5% had poor response. Side effects seen were hypopigmentation (58 AA), hyperpigmentation (11 AA), persistent erythema (42 vitiligo,28 AA), demarcation lines (4 AA), secondary bacterial infection (2 vitiligo, 5AA) and superficial scarring (2 vitiligo, 7AA). The wounding action of phenol is useful to repigment the vitiligo patches and for induction of regrowth of hair in alopecia areata.