2004 Volume 114 Issue 6 Pages 1121-1130
We used topical psoralen plus ultraviolet-A (PUVA) photochemotherapy to treat six patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease of the oral mucosa. The patients suffed from intractable oral pain and had difficulty eating because they had erosive oral lichen planus-like lesions. The PUVA therapy was carried out using spot UVA light with a light guide that could be inserted into the oral cavity. The lesions in the irradiated site markedly improved after 8-29 irradiations in all patients but recurred in two patients who required additional PUVA treatment. Proximal non-irradiated oral lesions also improved, as did those in the irradiated site. There were no significant side effects except for a mild phototoxic reaction in all patients. Intraoral PUVA seems to be a useful adjuvant therapy for treatment of refractory oral erosive lichen planus-like graft-versus-host disease.
