Comparative efficacy of oral contraceptive versus local treatment versus intense pulsed light combined with vacuum in endocrine acne in women.

Acne is the most common affection of adolescents, although it can be also found in adult women. Our study was aimed at the comparative assessment of three different therapies over a three-month period, applied to women with moderate comedogenic and papulo-pustular endocrine acne. In the study 116 female patients with endocrine localized face acne were included and divided into three groups: group I with 42 patients was treated with a combination of contraceptive pill + local treatment + pulsed-vacuum light; group II with 38 patients was treated with contraceptives and pulsed-vacuum light and group III with 36 patients was treated only with local treatment. The acne evaluation was made using the Global Acne Grading System (GAGS). Statistical data processing was carried out using the STATA software. For the comedogenic form of acne, the good and very good results were superior in group I vs group II and III (83.33% vs 31.58% vs 5.56%) at the end of the three months of treatment. For the papulo-pustulous form of acne, good and very good results were similar in groups I and II (92.86% vs 73.68%) both after the first month of treatment and at the end of the study, well above the local treatment group (13.99%). Our study highlighted the superiority of laser treatment combined with hormonal treatment, compared to hormonal and local treatment in the comedogenic form of acne, and the superiority of hormonal treatment combined (or not) with laser treatment in the papulo-pustular form compared to local treatment.

[Light-based inflammatory acne treatments]. / Phototherapie der entzündlichen Akne.

Light-based acne treatments may represent a new emerging treatment for acne that does not increase the risk of bacterial resistance and they may be potentially effective with a favorable safety profile. Current data show that photodynamic therapy reduces inflammatory lesions and significantly improves acne. However, there is no consensus on the optimal implementation in the treatment of acne. In addition to topically applied photodynamic therapy, intense pulsed light, pulsed dye lasers, potassium-titanyl-phosphate lasers, infrared diode lasers, broad-spectrum continuous-wave light sources (red light, blue-red light) have been introduced as alternative treatments. Since well-designed studies to evaluate their efficacy versus traditional medical therapies are lacking and standardized regimens have not been agreed upon, procedures including laser, intense pulsed light, and photodynamic therapy should currently not be considered first-line treatment for inflammatory acne.