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Combined therapy of 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy and intense pulsed light for rosacea

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Abstract

Rosacea is difficult to treat. Therefore, new alternative modalities are necessary to demonstrate. The present study was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of the combined therapy of 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) and intense pulsed light (IPL) for rosacea to provide a new treatment option for rosacea. The study was conducted from November 2017 to April 2019 at the Department of Dermatology, The First Hospital of China Medical University. Patients aged 18–65 years and diagnosed clinically as erythematotelangiectatic (ET) or papulopustular (PP) rosacea were enrolled. Three times of ALA-PDT at 10 days interval followed by 3 times of IPL at 3–4 weeks interval were defined as 1 session and applied to the whole face of each patient. ALA-PDT: 5% ALA, red light (fluency dose 60–100 mW/cm2, 20 min); IPL: 560/590/640 nm, double/triple-pulse mode, pulse width 3.0 to 4.5 ms, delay time 30–40 ms, energy fluency 14–17 J/cm2. Ten patients were enrolled in the study. Among them, 4 patients received only 1 session, while 6 patients received 2 sessions. After all treatments, 50% of patients achieved 75–100% improvement, and 30% achieved 50–75% improvement. Forty percent of patients were graded very satisfaction and 30% graded moderate satisfaction. All noninvasive measurements showed no significant differences among all time points (p > 0.05). The side effects were pain, burning sensation, itching, erythema, desquamation, slight edema, slight exudation, and hyperpigmentation. All of which were tolerable and recovered in a few days. The combined therapy of ALA-PDT and IPL showed an effective option for rosacea with a safety profile.

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Data Availability

All data are available on request to corresponding author.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 82103758).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, 155 North Nanjing Street, Shenyang, 110001, China

    NaiJia Bao, TianShu Gu, Jing Zeng, Yan Wu, Yan Sun, XingHua Gao & HongDuo Chen

  2. Ultrasonic ECG Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, China

    NaiJia Bao

  3. Key Laboratory of Immunodermatology, Ministry of Education and NHC, National Joint Engineering Research Center for Theranostics of Immunological Skin Diseases, Shenyang, China

    Jing Zeng, Yan Wu, Yan Sun, XingHua Gao & HongDuo Chen

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  1. NaiJia Bao
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  4. Yan Wu
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  5. Yan Sun
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Contributions

NaiJia Bao made the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data and drafted the work; TianShu Gu and Jing Zeng made analysis and interpretation of data for the work; Yan Wu and Yan Sun designed and revised the work; XingHua Gao and HongDuo Chen revised the work. All authors finally approved the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

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Correspondence to Yan Wu or Yan Sun.

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Bao, N., Gu, T., Zeng, J. et al. Combined therapy of 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy and intense pulsed light for rosacea. Lasers Med Sci 38, 17 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-022-03685-y

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