Assessment of patients with psoriasis undergoing treatment with narrowband UVB phototherapy in the State University of Pará, Brazil

Moderate and severe forms of psoriasis require phototherapy and/or systemic medications. The UVB band, with wavelength between 311 and 312nm, is called narrowband UVB (NB-UVB) and it has proven to be more beneficial for the psoriasis treatment. Goals: to characterize the group of patients with psoriasis treated with NB-UVB phototherapy, according to the clinical form, sex, phototype, and clinical evolution. Methods: All patients with psoriasis who underwent NB-UVB phototherapy between August 2016 and April 2017 were included in this study. Data on the patients were collected retrospectively. Results: During the study, 19 patients were treated with NB-UVB phototherapy, being 09 women (47%) and 10 men (53%), ages ranging from 22 to 81years. The most prevalent phototypes were III (42%) and IV (37%). Only 04 patients (21%) had guttate psoriasis and 15 (79%) had psoriasis vulgaris with variable severity. The total number of phototherapy sections, during the period evaluated, varied from 7 to 51, with an average of 25 sessions. It was observed that, 09 patients (47%) had a response beginning with up to two months of treatment. The minimum number of sections to start improvement varied from 8 to 28, with an average of 16 sessions. Conclusions: The use of NB-UVB phototherapy proved to be a safe and effective treatment, and should be considered a good therapeutic option for psoriasis.