Before you book the ticket.
Patients travel here mainly for vitiligo surgery, which comparatively few centres in India perform. This page exists so the journey is made by people for whom it is worth making — and skipped by the people for whom it is not.
At a glance
- The clinic
- Karkhana, Secunderabad, Telangana
- Travel for
- Grafting, excimer, dermatosurgery
- Don’t travel for
- What a video consultation can settle
- First step
- Photographs on WhatsApp — +91 99899 55330
- Typical answer
- Sometimes “wait” — that is a clinical answer
- Allow for
- A staged visit, not a single day
The commonest wasted journey is the avoidable one.
Surgical repigmentation only works on vitiligo that has been stable for roughly twelve months — no new patches, no existing ones enlarging. A significant proportion of the people who ask about grafting are told to wait, because their disease is still active and operating on it would fail.
That answer costs nothing to receive from home and a great deal to receive after a flight. So the sequence is: photographs on WhatsApp, then a video consultation, then travel — in that order, and only if the first two say the trip is warranted.
The same logic applies to every procedure. A video consultation cannot do dermatoscopy or hold a Wood’s lamp, but it can nearly always tell you whether the thing you are travelling for is the thing you need.
How a visit from out of state works
Send photographs
Daylight, no filter, one wide and one close of each area, plus any previous prescriptions and reports. On WhatsApp.
Take a video consultation
Diagnosis, whether the procedure suits your case, a realistic timeline, and an approximate cost — before anything is booked.
Come for the assessment and the procedure
Usually the same visit where the video consultation has already settled the diagnosis. Allow more than a single day.
Review, some of it from home
The early review is in person; later ones are frequently done over video with photographs, so a second journey is often unnecessary.
What makes the answer reliable.
- Photographs in daylight — no filter, no flash, a coin for scale
- When each patch appeared and whether any are still growing
- Every treatment tried, with dates and what happened
- Reports — biopsy, thyroid, blood work
- Which city you are travelling from, so the visit can be staged sensibly
- Your dates, so you are not told to wait after you have booked
Procedures travel. Prescriptions do not.
Melanocyte transplant, punch and blister grafting, excimer, phototherapy and the dermatosurgery list are physical treatments done in one place. Vitiligo surgery in particular is offered at comparatively few centres in India, and that is the honest reason patients come from outside the state.
Almost everything else — a diagnosis, a written plan, a second opinion, a systemic therapy review, arranging phototherapy at a unit near your home — is better done over video, because it produces the same result without a journey. You will be steered towards whichever of those two your case actually calls for.
How graft surgery worksWorth travelling for
Grafting and melanocyte transplant, excimer where no local unit exists, dermatosurgery.
Not worth travelling for
A diagnosis, a plan, a second opinion, a prescription review. All of those work over video.
Travelling for treatment
How long should I allow for a visit?
More than a single day. Assessment and procedure can often be arranged close together where a video consultation has already settled the diagnosis, but an early review follows the procedure and it is better not to fly the same evening.
Will I definitely be offered surgery if I travel?
No, and that is the point of sending photographs first. Grafting needs disease that has been stable for about twelve months; a significant proportion of people who ask are told to wait. Hearing that from home costs nothing.
Can the follow-up be done from my own city?
Much of it, yes. The early review is in person; later reviews are frequently done over video with photographs on the same WhatsApp thread.
Where exactly would I be coming to?
Plot No D13B, Wellington Rd, Vikrampuri Colony, Karkhana, Secunderabad, Telangana 500009 — the practice formerly known as BNR Skin & Vitiligo Hospital.
Do you help with accommodation?
Not directly, but the clinic team will tell you how many days to plan for and roughly when in the visit each stage falls, which is what you need in order to book sensibly.
What does it cost?
Costs are quoted in writing after the assessment, because the number of grafts or sessions is not knowable before it. A video consultation gives you an approximate range so you can plan before you travel.
Related on this site
The first appointment is a diagnosis.
Not a treatment plan sold on the spot. Message the clinic and bring your history.