Gunther Disease - Treatment and Management

Treatment and Management

There are a multiple ways to treat Gunther’s diseases but one of the most crucial things that a person with this disease can do is limit their selves from sun exposure or eliminate sun exposure all together. There are some sunscreens that have undesirable effects such as tropical sunscreens but other sunscreens that have zinc oxide and titanium dioxide in them are shown to provide protection due to those light-reflective agents. To block the ultraviolet and visible light wavelengths and get the protection that patients with Gunther’s disease require physical barriers are needed. It is also advised that patients wear protective clothing to block the sun from their skin. Plastic films can be attached to car windows and to homes to filter out some of the wavelengths that could cause harm to someone’s skin suffering with this disease. Incandescent bulbs replace the normal fluorescent lamps. These bulbs release less light, which prevents the “porphyrin-exciting” wavelengths that fluorescent lights emit .
Other less beneficial treatments have been used to help treat Gunther’s disease. These include oral beta-carotene and other oral treatments such as activated charcoal and cholestyramine, which are used to interrupt and stop the porphyrins from being reabsorbed in the body. The reason that these oral treatments are unreasonable is because they require an extremely large dose of medicine and therefore are not beneficial .
Erythrocyte transfusions have been shown to be a successful measure in decreasing the appearance of the disease by trying to lower the erythropoiesis and circulating porphyrin levels. Unfortunately, having chronic erythrocyte transfusions can be extremely harmful to the body and can cause severe complications .
To help with dry eye symptoms and visual function to use of topical lubrication can be used. A more invasive way to help treat Gunther’s disease would be to have surgery. There have been numerous studies that have stated that bone marrow transplantation is successful in this disease . This is a rather new development for Gunther’s disease so the long-term effects are still undetermined. If a patient has a life-threatening infectious complication then bone marrow transplantation is no longer relevant for them. There are also reports that stem cell transplantation is successful in a limited number of participants
Most doctors will tell all patients to reframe from consuming any alcohol, or drugs that could or will cause an attack. Doctors also advise patients to avoid any skin injuries and exposure to sun and use sunscreen whenever having to being exposed to the sun. It is usually beneficial to have a high carbohydrate diet