Letter: Vitamin E treatment of dermolytic bullous dermatosis.

Abstract

To the Editor.— An interesting contribution to reports on the forms of therapy for dermolytic bullous dermatosis (dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa) was made by Smith and Michener in theArchives(108:254, 1973). They describe the effectiveness of vitamin E treatment of the disease in a controlled study and cite previous references to such treatment. 1-3 The authors stated, In recent years, several authors have suggested that vitamin E (DL-alpha tocopherol) might be useful in the treatment of epidermolysis bullosa. This is likely to cause confusion because it suggests that vitamin E and DL-alpha tocopherol are synonymous. Actually, vitamin E and tocopherol are synonymous, but tocopherol is available in a variety of forms with varying therapeutic effectiveness. Tocopherol has a number of fractions, the alpha fraction of which possesses most of the therapeutic activity. This is demonstrated by the fact that pathological conditions in experimental animals resulting from a vitamin E-deficient diet