Abdisa Hunduma

Vitiligo, also known as leukoderma, is an acquired de-pigmentary disorder characterized by the appearance of white patches resulting from the loss of functional melanocytes and melanin from the skin with worldwide prevalence of approximately 0.1 to 8%. It most often affects the face, elbows and knees, hands and feet, and genitals and is more noticeable in darker-skinned people because of the contrast of white patches against dark skin. The exact etiopathophysiology of Vitiligo is not clearly known, but some main theories exist to explain it: the autoimmune hypothesis, the neural hypothesis, the self-destruct hypothesis (auto cytotoxic), biochemical, oxidative stress, melano-cytorrhagy, and decreased melanocyte survival hypotheses. different treatment modalities of vitiligo like steroidal treatment, chemo-phototherapy, vitamin D analogues, pseudo catalase, vitamin B12, surgical therapy and herbal treatments. Although, there are numerous medical and surgical interventions available to treat vitiligo, there is no study showed a definite treatment measure. Therefore, more randomized controlled trials on the treatment of vitiligo are necessary. Keywords: Vitiligo, Autoimmunity, Melanocyte