Photodynamic therapy for treating vulvar lichen sclerosus

Vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) is a chronic inflammatory dystrophic disease affecting the external genitalia, significantly deteriorating the woman’s quality of life and producing an extremely negative effect at her mental status. In case of inefficacy and/or contraindications to traditional pharmacological therapy, modern non-invasive apparatus-based treatment can serve as an alternative. Among them is photodynamic therapy (PDT) which affects targeting tissues with a proper photosensitizing agent and a direct irradiation with light of a specific wavelength. The authors describe their experience in treating 28 patients with VLS who had a course of three PDT sessions. As a result, 82 % of them had a complete symptom remission with no serious adverse effects and excellent therapy tolerance.