What Does A White Patch In The Underarm Indicate?

Posted on Sun, 16 Mar 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 16 Mar 2014 Answered on

Sat, 5 Apr 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi, I have got some white patch on skin in my underarm (not sure whats the medical term) but this has been persistent since long time, recently I've seen its extending. I'm attaching the photo of how it looks like, would highly appreciate if you can suggest what it is and what precautions i should take. thanks

Answered by Dr. Kalpana Pathak (1 hour later)

Brief Answer: details below Detailed Answer: Hi, Thanks for writing to us. I have seen the attached image, there could be three possibilities- vitiligo or post inflammatory hypopigmentation or naevi. Vitiligo or leucoderma is an autoimmune disease where there is complete loss of pigment cells. Post inflammatory hypopigmentation occurs after any preceding skin disease like fungal/ bacterial/viral infection, eczema etc. A naevi is a birth mark that occurs in a young age. Vitiligo and post inflammatory hypopigmentation can be differentiated by wood's lamp examination. Once the diagnosis is made, appropriate treatment can be started. More or less, treatment for both of these conditions is same, we usually prescribe a steroid cream and tacrolimus ointment in beginning. depending upon response, severity and extent of lesion other drugs like oral steroid/ azathioprine/psoralen etc can be added along with topical psoralen lotion/ decapeptide or growth factor based solutions. Had you been my patient, I would have prescribed mometasone cream once in a day and tacrolimus ointment 0.1% twice in a day atleast for a month. Depending on the response, i would either continued the medicines or added others too. My advise would be to meet a dermatologist nearby for proper consultation and management. Hope this helped. Take care

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D