Doghaim NN, et al. - In this investigation involving 40 patients, researchers assessed the impact of Er:YAG laser skin ablation followed by topical 5-flurouracil on the outcome of NB-UVB phototherapy as a short term technique in resistant and stable vitiligo. Participants in the study were patients suffering from bilateral stable vitiligo resistant to NB-UVB. One side of the body had 4 months of NB-UVB sessions (control side) for each patient. While the other side of the body had one Er: YAG laser ablation session in combination with topical 5% 5-flurouracil application in occlusion followed by 4 months of NB-UVB sessions after complete re-epithelization. Findings revealed that the repigmentation on the laser side was statistically significantly improved relative to the control side. Histopathological examination disclosed expression of prominent melanin pigmentation, with marked expression on the laser side for Melan-A, whereas in the control side these results were negative.