Published 3 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2213
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2213

Letters

UVB phototherapy for psoriasis

Narrowband UVB phototherapy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Koek and colleagues’ study should encourage others to implement supervised home ultraviolet B (UVB) phototherapy for psoriasis and other conditions.¹ We reported pilot studies of home phototherapy using narrowband UVB, which is more effective for psoriasis than broadband UVB.^{2 3}

We now have over 10 years’ experience of home phototherapy, with 16 home phototherapy units in almost constant use. We use a hub and spoke model for providing phototherapy and other dermatology outpatient services.⁴ Our service includes three separate peripheral hospital phototherapy units and a central unit in Dundee, but home phototherapy still has a place. In 2008, 25 of the 818 (3%) courses of whole body narrowband UVB administered by our service were for home phototherapy. Most home phototherapy courses in our area are for psoriasis (155 of the previous 216 (72%)). However, with appropriate supervision, home narrowband UVB phototherapy is also useful for atopic eczema, desensitisation treatment of photodermatoses . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Photobiology Unit, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Authors’ reply

Mayke B G Koek, Erik Buskens, Carla AFM Bruijnzeel-Koomen, and Vigfús Sigurdsson
BMJ 2009 338: b2215. [Extract] [Full Text]

Home versus outpatient ultraviolet B phototherapy for mild to severe psoriasis: pragmatic multicentre randomised controlled non-inferiority trial (PLUTO study)

Mayke B G Koek, Erik Buskens, Huib van Weelden, Paul H A Steegmans, Carla A F M Bruijnzeel-Koomen, and Vigfús Sigurdsson
BMJ 2009 338: b1542. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home UVB phototherapy for psoriasis

Alex Anstey
BMJ 2009 338: b607. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Koek, M. B G, Buskens, E., Bruijnzeel-Koomen, C. A., Sigurdsson, V. (2009). Authors' reply. BMJ 338: b2215-b2215 [Full text]  

Online poll

Find out more here>> and here>>