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Phototherapy involves the use of ultraviolet (UV) radiation for the treatment of skin diseases.

In the last 25 years, it has gained great importance among dermatological treatments. There are mainly three types of UV radiation lamps for dermatological use: UVA, UVB, and narrowband UVB.

Phototherapy with narrow-band UVB radiation is the most widely used at present as it has shown equal efficacy to UVA radiation in most dermatological pathologies with a lower rate of side effects.

Phototherapy is used in different inflammatory dermatological diseases such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, vitiligo and pruritus.

There are different treatment protocols generally based on each patient’s skin phototype. By phototype, we mean the skin’s ability to absorb solar radiation. According to the ability to redden or tan, the classification ranges from phototypes I to VI, with phototype I being the lightest and VI being the darkest.

The sessions are very brief (seconds to minutes) and typically there are increases of 10-20% in energy per session, with a frequency of 2-3 times per week, reaching a response between 12 and 30 sessions.