Dyed pulsed light treatment effective, safe for rosacea treatment in Chinese patients

Key takeaways:

• After three treatments, the effectiveness and excellent rates were 68.9% and 35.6%, respectively.
• Of the 16 patients that achieved excellent improvement, 11 required only two treatment sessions.

After an average of two treatment sessions, narrow-band intense pulsed light improved erythema and telangiectasia in patients with rosacea, according to a study.

“Dyed pulsed light (DPL) is a kind of narrow-band pulsed light technology, and it uses filters that concentrate the light into a narrow and specific spectrum (500 nm-600 nm), which contains the absorption peak of melanin and hemoglobin,” Hualing Shi, BSN, of the department of cosmetic laser surgery at the Hospital for Skin Disease and Institute of Dermatology at Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, and colleagues wrote. “The output energy could accurately concentrate on the blood vessels and spots improving facial erythema and pigmentation more efficiently.”

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of narrow-band intense DPL, the authors conducted a retrospective study that included 45 Chinese patients with erythematotelangiectatic rosacea that underwent three treatments of DPL over the span of 2 to 15 weeks (mean, 5.6 ± 2.9 weeks).

The effectiveness and excellent rates, as determined by clearance of erythema and telangiectasia, were 68.9% and 35.6%, respectively, after three treatment sessions.

Of the 16 (35.6%) patients that achieved excellent improvement, a majority required two treatment sessions (n = 11), whereas the remainder required one (n = 2) or three (n = 3) sessions.

Based on these results, the authors concluded that the average number of treatment sessions to achieve a good or excellent response is approximately two sessions.

Transient erythema or edema recession was observed in some patients within 24 hours of treatment. The authors did not observe any severe adverse events.

“A few treatment sessions with DPL can result in significant improvement,” the authors wrote. “However, this result may be due to the involvement of mostly patients with mild or moderate rosacea.”

The authors concluded that, although DPL may be safe and effective for the treatment of erythematotelangiectatic rosacea, future studies with a larger sample size may be needed to uncover more detailed findings.