Intense pulsed light for pigmented and vascular lesions and skin rejuvenation: Two decades of clinical trials

Abstract

Background: The wide wavelength spectrum of intense pulsed light (IPL) provides an opportunity for a versatile array of clinical applications in dermatology.Methods: Key randomized clinical trials which took place in the past 20 years were summarized, focusing on skin rejuvenation, including pigmented and vascular lesions. We searched Pubmed using the key words intense, pulsed, light, and skin, then filtered results for randomized clinical trials.Results and Conclusions: Studies uniformly showed improvement in pigmented and vascular lesions with IPL. Efficacy in treating rhytides was only observed in some studies.IPL was also effective as a light source in treating actinic keratosis with photodynamic therapy. Rare cases of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation were observed.