A scoping review of the extent of the clinical research on the vitiligo extent score.

Vitiligo is a chronic skin condition with no cure. Clinical assessment and treatment evaluation rely heavily on clinometry tools and expert knowledge. The Vitiligo Extent Score has been proposed as one of the most reliable and easy-to-use clinometry tools for vitiligo. We conducted a scoping review to identify all evidence on clinical research for the Vitiligo Extent Score. Databases searched included: MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, Open Grey, Lens, and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). We followed the approach proposed in the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer's Manual and reported this review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. The results are presented in sections covering VES reliability, its smallest detectable change, minimally important change, modifications proposed to the instrument, an extension of cross-cultural validation, and comparison to other clinical scoring instruments. The systematic review identified 42 records, and 23 studies were included in the final report. The VES demonstrated good or excellent reliability across different clinical scenarios and when used by experts and non-experts. The VES has a low minimally important change that overlaps with the smallest detectable change. The instrument has been modified for various clinical scenarios, including perifollicular assessment, patient-oriented scoring, and target evaluation. To date, the VES has only been cross-culturally validated outside its developmental population for patients in Thailand. Finally, the VES has been used in clinical research to assess disease severity, its correlation with other variables, evaluate vitiligo response to therapy, and develop disease extent scores. The VES is highly reliable, easy to use, and versatile for clinical research and everyday clinical assessment. However, more cross-cultural validations are needed to extend its applicability.