Santa Cruz de Tenerife, June 9th 2021. The Hospiten Group has a new treatment that improves therapeutic results in patients affected by chronic vulvar lichen, one of the least-known diseases that can make sexual relations impossible and even harm the physiological process of urination and defecation.
Dr. Ioana Bodea, of the Hospiten Cosmetic Gynecology and Intimate Surgery Unit, explains that the treatment involves the use of CO2 laser combined with tissue regeneration treatments using growth factors (PRP), regeneration with the patient’s own fat, including dissection and surgical recovery of the vulvar anatomy in the most severe cases.
This vanguard technique gives immediate relief of symptoms, such as itching, local pain, discomfort during sexual intercourse and, in the long term, limits the progression of the disease, as long as the personalized treatment plan established by the specialist is adhered to.
Dr. Bodea states that vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) is a progressive chronic condition, whose cause is unknown, which mainly affects the skin of the vulvar and/or perianal region. It is not contagious and therefore, cannot be spread through sexual intercourse, can be detected at any age and is ten times more common in women than in men.
The main warning sign is chronic itching or irritation of the external genital area, especially at night, thus having a dramatic impact on the quality of life of affected patients. Other symptoms are pain during sexual intercourse, when urinating or defecating, a burning sensation around the vulvar and reabsorption of the labia major and minor, with the consequent loss of the normal anatomy of the vulva. Likewise, severe vulvar retraction can occur, which makes sexual intercourse difficult or impossible and even impair the physiological process of urination and defecation.
Furthermore, the chronic progression of the condition can lead to skin or vulvar cancer.
For that reason, the Hospiten group aims to improve the early diagnosis of lichen, which is currently carried out through clinical examination and skin biopsy (taking a few millimeters of skin for viewing under a microscope).
About the Hospiten Group
The Hospiten Group is an international healthcare network with 50 years of experience committed to providing the highest quality service, which has twenty private medical-hospital centers in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica and Panama, in addition to more than a hundred outpatient consultation offices under the brand name Clinic Assist. The group is chaired by Dr. Pedro Luis Cobiella and attends more than 1,900,000 patients from all over the world every year with a workforce of more than 5,000 people.