Mesotherapy with dutasteride safe, effective in androgenetic alopecia
Mesotherapy with dutasteride was effective and associated with no serious side effects in a cohort of patients with androgenetic alopecia, according to study findings.
David Saceda Corralo, MD, PhD, a specialist in dermatology and trichology at Ramón y Cajal University Hospital at the University of Alcala and in the trichology unit of the Pedro Jaén Dermatology Group, both in Madrid, and colleagues suggested that 5-alpha inhibitors are an effective treatment for androgenetic alopecia.
“Mesotherapy with dutasteride has been proposed as an effective method to improve hair loss and [in] reducing systemic absorption,” they wrote.
In the current multicenter retrospective study, the group assessed the safety of mesotherapy with dutasteride in a real-world setting. Effectiveness of the treatment also underwent analysis.
The key inclusion criterion was treatment with at least 6 months of follow-up.
There were 541 patients in the cohort with a median grade of alopecia severity of 2 on a scale of 1 to 5 based on Ebling’s scale.
Most patients (72.6%) were treated with mesotherapy with oral dutasteride every 3 months. However, 28.5% of patients were also being treated with oral minoxidil, while less than 10% each were receiving oral finasteride (5.9%), oral bicalutamide (2.6%) or oral spironolactone (0.9%).
At 1 year of follow-up, 86 patients (15.9%) were eligible for assessment of the safety of mesotherapy as a monotherapy approach. Patients were treated for a median duration of 17 months.
Most of the patients eligible for assessment (86.6%) showed clinical improvement, while a marked improvement was reported in 38.4% of the group.
Pain was the most commonly reported adverse event at 45.5%. The researchers observed no serious or sexual adverse events.
“Mesotherapy with dutasteride was effective in male and female hair loss in real clinical practice,” they concluded. “Side effects related to the treatment were mild and self-limited. This therapy may be an effective option for select patients wishing to avoid oral treatment.”