Abstract
Early acne scar intervention is important. Oral isotretinoin is widely used in patients with moderate to severe acne. Picosecond laser has shown a promising effect on scar clearance. However, there is a lack of reports on the efficacy and safety of early acne scar management by using 1064-nm picosecond laser in patients receiving low-dose oral isotretinoin. Twenty-four patients with atrophic acne scars of Fitzpatrick skin type III to V were enrolled. All patients were receiving low-dose oral isotretinoin (0.12–0.22 mg/kg/day) during the treatment. The face of the participants was randomly assigned to receive 2 sessions of fractional picosecond 1064 nm Nd: YAG laser (FxPico) treatment and 2 follow-ups, with an interval of 1 month (month 0–3). Clinical efficacy and safety were assessed by photographs, ECCA grading scale, the number of scar lesions melanin and erythema indexes (MI and EI), TEWL, DLQI, and patient satisfaction and the adverse events were recorded on every visit. FxPico significantly decreased the ECCA score and showed higher improvement in the ECCA score. FxPico treated side achieved a significant reduction in all acne scar types, while only boxcar scars and rolling scars showed higher improvement. TEWL but not MI or EI were significantly improved. DLQI and patient satisfaction were higher with the FxPico-treated side than control side. No adverse effects were observed and all the side effects observed were temporary and tolerable. Early intervention by FxPico on patients receiving low-dose oral isotretinoin is a safe and effective modality to improve atrophic acne scars.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Abbreviations
- DLQI:
-
Questionnaire of Dermatology Life Quality Index
- ECCA grading scale:
-
Échelle d’évaluation clinique des cicatrices d’acné
- EI:
-
Erythema index
- FxPico:
-
Fractional picosecond 1064 nm Nd: YAG laser
- GAGS:
-
Global acne grading system
- LIOB:
-
Laser-induced optical breakdown
- MI:
-
Melanin index
- PIH:
-
Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation
- TEWL:
-
Transepidermal water loss
- VAS:
-
Visual analogue scale
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This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (81172590) and Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (2020SF-178) to Weihui Zeng; NSFC (82003325) to Jing Liu; and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (82201966) to Zhao Wang.
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Design: ZWH; experiments: XH, YD, HSL, HSJ, LJ, MSZ, LYB, HGL, HD; data analysis/writing: XH, WZ; manuscript revision: WZ, ZWH; supervision: ZWH, WZ; funding acquisition: ZWH. All authors approved this final version.
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Xue, H., Ye, D., Huang, SL. et al. Early acne scar intervention with 1064 nm picosecond laser in patients receiving oral isotretinoin: a randomized split-face controlled pilot study. Lasers Med Sci 38, 40 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-022-03702-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-022-03702-0