Reassessing Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia

October 2008 in “ Expert Review of Dermatology ”

Dimitrios Rigopoulos, Efstathios Rallis, Stamatis Gregoriou, Andreas Katsambas

TLDR Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia is a slowly progressing hair loss condition, likely underdiagnosed, with ineffective treatments, needing more research to understand it fully.

The 2008 review on Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia (FFA) described it as a scarring alopecia that progresses slowly, mainly affecting the frontoparietal hairline and eyebrows, predominantly in women over 60. With only 117 cases reported, the condition was believed to be underdiagnosed. Histologically, FFA was similar to Lichen Planopilaris (LPP) and required clinicopathologic correlation for diagnosis. Treatments like oral prednisone or chloroquine were ineffective, and symptoms often worsened after stopping them. The review emphasized the need for more extensive research to understand FFA's characteristics, causes, and treatment, and questioned whether FFA should be considered a separate condition or a variant of LPP due to its unique presentation in postmenopausal women and poor response to treatment.

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10 / 10 results

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