Childhood vitiligo: A retrospective hospital based study, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Objective

To study the clinical and the epidemiologic profiles of childhood vitiligo.

Patients and methods

We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of children with vitiligo presented to the dermatology outpatient clinic at King Abdul Aziz Medical City – Jeddah from May 2009 to May 2010. This study included 38 patients. All patients were assessed for the natural history, clinical characteristics, family history, and associated abnormalities of vitiligo.

Results

Of the 38 children with vitiligo 14 (36.9%) were boys and 24 (63.2%) were girls. The mean age of onset of the vitiligo was 7.9 years. The mean duration of the disease was 49.7 weeks. The most common type of vitiligo was vitiligo vulgaris (60.5%) followed by acrofacial vitiligo (26.5%), focal vitiligo (23.7%), and segmental vitiligo (2.6%). The most frequent site of onset was the head and the neck, followed by the extremities, the trunk and the genitalia. Of the 38 children with vitiligo, 14 (36.9%) had a family history and 4 (10.5%) had a positive anti-thyroid antibodies.

Conclusion

Our children have a strong family history of vitiligo and they are developing the disease at a slightly older age compared with those of other studies; however, other epidemiologic features appear to be similar to those reported in the previously published studies.