Direct Transplant of Melanocytes from Normal Donor Area into Vitiligenous Recipient Area by Intralesional Injection of Melanocytes Using Spade Like Needle Technique

Background: Vitiligo is a common autoimmune inflammatory skin disease, where there are different surgical techniques for treatment of stable patches of vitiligo .Objective: To find non-costly, minimally invasive, simple technique by direct melanocytes transplant by spade needle technique in treatment of vitiligo. Patients and Methods: This interventional, therapeutic, comparative study was done in Department of Dermatology, Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq from April 2014-March 2015. Twenty patients with localized, generalized and segmental vitiligo were included. Full history and examination for each patient was done with 4 (20%) males and 16 (80%) females and their ages ranged from 9 - 40 (23.15 ± 11.44) years. Forty one patches in 20 patients treated by spade grafting technique and the donor and recipient sites were demarcated and anesthesia done by xylocaine 2% with adrenalin 1:100,000. Transplantation was started by using disposable needle gauge 18 (the sharp end of needle was cut by a scissor to make it a spade like) with medical syringe 5 ml supplied with normal saline. The micro-pieces were taken from donor site and transplanted directly, easily and rapidly into dermis of recipient site and followed by pushing normal saline and the procedure was repeated to cover all recipient sites with 5 mm distance between injection points. The surface area of the lesions was calculated and the reduction rate was estimated every month till the end of the 4th month period of the treatment. Results: Including 41 patches in 20 patients with the surface area of the patches ranged from 1.5 - 90 cm2 (13.78 ± 17.57) cm2. The mean ±SD of surface area of lesions was decreased from 13.78 ± 17.57 cm2 at baseline visit to 13.61 ± 17.48 cm2 at the second visit (after 2 weeks ) which was statistically significant (p value ≤ 0.001). The mean surface area continued to be reduced till reaching 12.20 ± 15.68 cm2 at the third visit and 12.01 ± 15.55 cm2 at the fourth visit. All were statistically significant when compared to baseline visit. There was reduction in surface area 1.1% at two weeks, 9.93%, and 12.5% at the 2nd, 4th months respectively. Conclusions: Intradermal injection of melanocytes in patients with vitiligo by spade like needle was very quick and simple non-costly technique, and gave 12.5% reduction which could be repeated at different times until satisfactory re-pigmentation of vitiligenous skin is achieved.