10.5826/dpc.1304a236
text/xml
2160-9381
3288
en
Laura Segovia
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dermatology Practical & Conceptual
Vitiligo Repigmentation After SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
Text.Serial.Journal
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc
Image Letter
2023-10-31
2023-02-26
2023-10-31
2024-01-15
e2023236
Dermatol Pract Concept
Laura Segovia
2023/10/31
10.5826/dpc.1304a236
e2023236
Pathology Anatomy Unit, Barros Luco Hospital, Santiago de Chile, Chile
2160-9381
en
e2023236
McMahon DE, Amerson E, Rosenbach M, et al. Cutaneous reactions reported after Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination: A registry-based study of 414 cases. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2021;85(1):46-55. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2021.03.092
Vitiligo Repigmentation After SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc/article/download/3288/2382
  Vitiligo Repigmentation After SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
  Roberto Bustos-Macaya1, Francisco González-Coloma2, Juan Pablo Morales-Etcheberry2,
                                    Laura Segovia3


1 Dermatology Unit, Barros Luco Hospital, Santiago de Chile, Chile
2 Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, University de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile
3 Pathology Anatomy Unit, Barros Luco Hospital, Santiago de Chile, Chile



Citation: Bustos-Macaya R, González-Coloma F, Morales-Etcheberry JP, Segovia L. Vitiligo Repigmentation After SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine.
Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023236. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.1304a236
Accepted: April 24, 2023; Published: October 2023
Copyright: ©2023 Bustos-Macaya et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial License (BY-NC-4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, which permits unrestricted
noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
Funding: None.
Competing Interests: None.
Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication.
Corresponding Author: Juan Pablo Morales-Etcheberry, Address: Ricardo Lyon #3443, Apt 1103, Ñuñoa, Chile.
E-mail: jpmoraleset@hotmail.com




Case Presentation                                                        of melanocytes without any other significant changes. Given
                                                                         that the patient had universal vitiligo before the vaccine, he
A 72-year-old male with a history of vitiligo that started               asked for a depigmenting treatment and was then treated
during adolescence and hypertension—both conditions                      with 10% monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone.
without any treatment—was sent by general practitioner
because of the sudden appearance of asymptomatic, round
                                                                         Teaching Point
pigmented macules on his vitiligo lesions, especially those
on ears and hands, two days after receiving the first dose of            Since SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are relatively new, we still have
SARS-CoV-2 vaccine BNT16b2. No new lesions appeared af-                  a lot to learn about their potential adverse effect. There
ter the second dose. Clinically, the lesions looked like vitiligo        have been many reports of mucocutaneous symptoms after
re-pigmentation, but a skin biopsy was performed. In ach-                COVID-19 vaccines [1,2], including lupus, vasculitis and
romic areas, the biopsy showed a complete absence of me-                 chilblains, their pathophysiology has not been completely
lanocytes, while in the pigmented areas showed the presence              understood yet, as mRNA vaccine are still new in our clinical




Image Letter | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023236                                                                           1
Figure 1. (A) Clinical picture of the hand of the patient, where the re-pigmented areas can be seen. (B,C) Histopathology of a re-pigmented
area where melanocytes can be seen in the basal layer of the epidermis. (B) Corresponds to the H&E stain and (C) to Melan-A immu-
nohistochemistry. (D,E) Absence of melanocyte in an achromic area of the hand. (D) Corresponds to the H&E stain and (E) to Melan-A
immunohistochemistry.




practice. Even though new-onset vitiligo or worsening vitil-               mucocutaneous presentations after COVID-19 vaccination
igo has been described, we could not find any report about                 and expert recommendations about vaccination of import-
                                                                           ant immune-mediated dermatologic disorders. Dermatol Ther.
an improving vitiligo after any SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. This
                                                                           2022;35(6):e15461. DOI:10.1111/dth.15461 PMID: 35316551.
shows that we still have a lot to learn about this new disease
                                                                           PMCID: PMC9111423.
and this new type of vaccine.                                           2. McMahon DE, Amerson E, Rosenbach M, et al. Cutaneous re-
                                                                            actions reported after Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccina-
                                                                            tion: A registry-based study of 414 cases. J Am Acad Dermatol.
References                                                                  2021;85(1):46-55. DOI:10.1016/j.jaad.2021.03.092 PMID:
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2                                                                             Image Letter | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(4):e2023236
