Phototherapy and Patch Testing

Experience and facility with all modes of phototherapy are important aspects of the field of dermatology. Residents, particularly during the Day Treatment Center assignment - in which you will round daily for two months on patients receiving regular phototherapy - you will observe and learn about phototherapy treatment. The importance of and uses for patch testing as an important diagnostic technique are included in this assignment.

Over the three-year residency, the faculty will teach:

• Irradiance and explain exposure dose.
• Minimal erythema dose (MED) and minimal phototoxic dose (MPD).
• Measurement of MED and MPD and plan a treatment program based on it.
• Adjuvant therapies for UVB and PUVA.
• Management of treatment gaps, adjustments for excessive exposures, and conversion to maintain therapy for UVB and PUVA.
• Treatment of accidental overdosing of UVB and PUVA.
• Management of non-psoriasis patients: PUVA or UVA-1 for morphea/ scleroderma; UVB for pityriasis rosea, renal or hepatic disease, atopic dermatitis, etc..
• The procedure for routine and photo patch testing.