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Possibilities and Limitations

Matthias Lüftl, MD; Klaus Degitz, MD; Gerd Plewig, MD; Martin Röcken, MD

Arch Dermatol. 1997;133(12):1597-1603.

Abstract
Oral psoralen plus UV-A (PUVA) therapy was originally developed for the treatment of vitiligo.^1,2 With the introduction of potent UV-A irradiation sources between 1972 and 1974, UV-A irradiation following psoralen application was found to be a highly efficient therapy for proriasis.^3-5 The acronym PUVA was created and the potential use of PUVA was investigated in a large spectrum of different inflammatory and neoplastic skin diseases.^6-8 Psoralen plus UV-A has profoundly influenced the therapeutic concepts of dermatology, as demonstrated in the recent review by Honig et al.⁸ An alternative approach, psoralen bath plus UV-A therapy (PUVA bath therapy) that avoids the adverse effects associated with oral PUVA therapy has increasingly been used during recent years. Psoralen bath plus UV-A therapy is not simply a technical variant of photochemotherapy; it is obviously superior to oral PUVA, at least for some indications, and it has considerably enlarged the spectrum of diseases responsive to photochemotherapy.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Dermatology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany.

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