Heal House Vitiligo Research 18 · Case Report
Vitiligo after bone marrow transplant for leukemia: how was it treated?
A Case of Refractory Vitiligo Treated with Non-cultured Epidermal Cell Suspension Transplantation Using Suction Blister Method
Last reviewed
In short
This is a case of a 14-year-old girl who developed vitiligo on her legs after a bone marrow transplant (hematopoietic stem cell transplant) for acute leukemia. She was safely treated with epidermal cell grafting from suction blisters, and her skin color was restored.
It is even more concerning when a child who has endured difficult chemotherapy and transplantation also develops vitiligo. A 14-year-old girl who received a bone marrow transplant for acute lymphoblastic leukemia came to me with several white patches on her legs after the transplant. Despite 7 months of narrowband UVB phototherapy, the patches did not improve. So I turned to a surgical approach.
Q1 How was it treated?
A suction blister was created on the inner right thigh, and cells were obtained from the blister roof (epidermis). Those cells were transplanted onto the white patches on the legs. Although the lesions had not responded to phototherapy, color successfully returned with this method. There were no side effects such as infection or scarring at either the donor site or the recipient site. This case demonstrates that this approach can be a safe and effective option even for a child who has undergone the special circumstances of chemotherapy and transplantation.
Closing remarks
This case confirms that suction-blister epidermal cell transplantation can be safe and effective for refractory vitiligo that does not improve with phototherapy, even under the special circumstance of a bone marrow transplant. Being able to bring colour back to the white patches on the skin of a child who had endured difficult treatment was a meaningful experience for me as well.
