Phototherapy for Vitiligo

The modern history of phototherapy began in 1801 when the German scientist JW Ritter isolated ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This knowledge was first utilized for dermatological therapeutic purposes in 1893 when Danish dermatologist Finsen used filtered sunlight to treat lupus vulgaris. The first employment of an artificial UV radiation source for the treatment of skin diseases came in 1894 when Lahman in Germany utilized the combination of a carbon arc lamp and a parabolic mirror to successfully treat lupus vulgaris. The transition from heliotherapy to phototherapy was solidified in 1901 when Finsen, who had replaced filtered sunlight with the carbon arc lamp for the treatment of lupus, published his results. Finsen won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1903 for his work. He is recognized as the founder of modern phototherapy.2 Montgomery was the first to treat vitiligo with phototherapy in 1904 in the form of a Finsen light.3Although phototherapy had been established by this time as a legitimate therapeutic modality for some disorders, the low output of carbon arc lamps limited their usefulness. The journey toward a radiation source capable of higher output began with the development of the quartz lamp by the German Kuch in 1906. The concept of using the quartz lamp for therapeutic purposes was spearheaded by Hagelschmidt in 1911. A quartz lamp with a high UV output was developed by Kromayer in 1912. The greatly increased UV output of this device significantly expanded the range of skin diseases that could be treated with phototherapy.