Dermoscopy in vitiligo, diagnostic clues and markers of disease activity: a review of the literature.

Dermoscopy is a noninvasive, efficient and inexpensive tool used to aid diagnosis of skin conditions such as vitiligo. Furthermore, it aids in tracking patient progress, treatment response and disease activity. Vitiligo can be diagnosed on dermoscopy by the presence of white structureless areas signifying hypopigmentation with a typical glowing appearance. Other typical features are perilesional and perifollicular hyperpigmentation, pigmentation networks and leucotrichia. In total, 15 studies were reviewed to determine the dermoscopic signs of the three main stages of disease activity: active, stable and repigmenting vitiligo. Features that differentiate active, stable and repigmenting vitiligo are reviewed and discussed in this article. Notably, there is a conflict in the literature between various dermoscopic features and which type of vitiligo they are truly indicative of. However, dermoscopy can be coupled with other clinical, biological and physiological markers to strengthen diagnostic accuracy.

Review of dermoscopic features in hypopigmentary disorders.

Dermoscopy has seen increased utilisation in the diagnosis of hypopigmentary disorders. As a quick and effective adjunct to the clinician's toolbox, dermoscopy offers the opportunity to differentiate between hypopigmentary lesions that ostensibly present with clinically similar morphology on the macroscopic scale. The focus of this article is to review the various dermoscopic signs and patterns that have been elucidated for these disorders.

Management of the Distal Ureter During Nephroureterectomy for Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma: A Comprehensive Review of Literature.

PURPOSE: Radical open nephroureterectomy (ONU) with bladder cuff excision (BCE) is the traditional gold standard approach for management of high-risk non-metastatic upper tract urothelial cancer. ONU involves two separate procedures; the nephrectomy and distal ureterectomy, with each of these parts being able to be performed with an open or minimally-invasive approach. Multiple approaches have been described for the resection of the distal ureter and bladder cuff after mobilization of the kidney and upper ureter. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A Medline search of the literature including relevant articles up to March, 2020 was performed. Search terms included "nephroureterectomy", "upper tract urothelial carcinoma", "upper urinary tract carcinoma OR UTUC", "open OR conventional OR ONU OR conventional", "robotic-assisted nephroureterectomy OR RANU", "laparoscop* OR LNU OR LRNU" and "minimally-invasive nephroureterectomy". Original articles, case series and review articles were included. RESULTS: There are no randomised studies. Various techniques have been described to manage the distal ureter during nephroureterectomy. This review provides an overview of these techniques. The perioperative and oncological outcomes following open versus endoscopic techniques and minimally invasive techniques have been described. Although endoscopic approaches have more favourable perioperative outcomes, this comes at the expense of increased risk of tumour spillage and recurrence compared to the traditional open approaches. Minimally-invasive techniques (laparoscopic and robotic-assisted NU) largely have superior perioperative outcomes versus their open NU counterparts, with comparable oncological outcomes. CONCLUSION: Current non-randomised evidence is open to selection bias and is insufficient to support or refute endoscopic management of the distal ureter as an alternative to open bladder cuff excision. The optimal approach to nephroureterectomy and management of the distal ureter continues to remain a surgical dilemma.