Ultraviolet Light in Office Practice

Abstract

Ultraviolet light sources have both diagnostic and therapeutic value and are useful adjuncts to the physician's office equipment. The long ultraviolet rays produced by black light or Wood's light are of significant aid in diagnosing ringworm of the scalp, erythrasma and porphyria. Natural sunlight, hot and cold quartz lamps, mercury vapor lamps and fluorescent sun lamps produce the therapeutically active shorter rays. The advantages and disadvantages of these sources of ultraviolet light, the diseases that will respond to them, the general technics for their use, and the value and dangers of actinic exposures are discussed. Patients should be warned of the danger of repeated nontherapeutic sun bathing, which causes significant cutaneous damage that may lead to skin cancer.