Cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) – an autoimmune photosensitive disorder, cause damage to the skin, like dyspigmentation, scarring, atrophy and/or alopecia. These can be cosmetically disfiguring and can render considerable patient distress. Presently, most treatments focus primarily on reducing CLE-related inflammation. However, strong guidance on managing CLE damage is lacking. 

The purpose of a new study published in Dermatologic Therapy was to provide an overview of the current knowledge on the pathogenesis and management of signs of disease damage in CLE.

This was a narrative review that searched Pubmed, Ovid Medline and Google scholar, for relevant articles assessing pathogenesis and treatment of disease damage. Therapeutic options for CLE damage, including hyperpigmentation (laser and camouflage), hypopigmentation (melanocyte grafting and camouflage), scarring (laser, dermabrasion, and camouflage), atrophy (filler, fat transplantation, and flap procedures), and scarring alopecia (hair transplantation and camouflage) were identified. 

The results depicted that evidence on therapeutics for CLE disease damage are primarily derived from case reports and small case series. Reported adverse events due to treatment for CLE disease damage include – temporary erythema, discomfort to disease reactivation and pigmentary defects. In fact, there exist various treatments for each sign of disease damage. Yet, larger studies may be necessary to assess disease pathogenesis and improve treatments of disease damage due to CLE.

Source: Dermatologic Therapy. 2021 Jun 20;e15034. doi: 10.1111/dth.15034.