Efficacy of Ablative Fractional Laser-assisted Photodynamic Therapy With Short Incubation Time for the Treatment of Facial and Scalp Actinic Keratosis: 12-month Follow-up Results of a Randomized, Prospective, Comparative Trial
Efficacy of Ablative Fractional Laser-assisted Photodynamic Therapy With Short Incubation Time for the Treatment of Facial and Scalp Actinic Keratosis: 12-month Follow-up Results of a Randomized, Prospective, Comparative Trial
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using methyl aminolevulinate (MAL) is an effective first-line treatment for actinic keratosis (AK). Erbium: yttrium-aluminium-garnet (Er:YAG) ablative fractional laser-assisted MAL-PDT (AFL-PDT) has shown significant benefit for the treatment of AK. However, knowledge on the optimal photosensitizer incubation time for AFL-PDT is limited
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is widely used in the treatment of superficial skin cancer. It has an excellent cosmetic outcome, and it could be considered the first-line therapy for Actinic keratosis (AK). In PDT incubation time is required so that the photosensitizer can be converted to PpIX. The recommended treatment regimen of PDT requires a relatively long incubation time with ALA (4 hours) and MAL (3 hours) before illumination. Theoretically, ablative fractional laser (AFL) pre-treatment may facilitate the penetration and distribution of topically applied drugs, since the ablated laser holes extend into the dermis, thereby possibly acting as channels for drug uptake. However, knowledge on the optimal photosensitizer incubation time for AFL-PDT is limited. The objectives of this study were to compare the efficacy, recurrence rate, cosmetic outcome, and safety between AFL-PDT with 2 and 3hours of incubation vs. conventional MAL-PDT in patients with facial and scalp AK.
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