The Effectiveness of Pulsed Dye Laser in Management of Acne Vulgaris: A Systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Acne vulgaris is one of the most prevalent skin diseases, affecting up to 85% of teenagers and young adults. Multiple treatment options including topical, systemic or physical therapies. However, the effects of conventional therapies are limited due to antibi-otic resistance and adverse effects such as irritation and teratogenicity of isotretinoin. Light-based therapy is an alternative and/or adjuvant therapy in patients who cannot tolerate or unresponsive to conventional therapies that may provide fewer side effects, patient com-fort, fast onset of action, and with equal or greater effectiveness. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of using Pulsed Dye Laser as a treatment option for acne vulgaris. A systemat-ic Review and Meta-analysis was peformed of randomized clinical trials assessing the ef-fectiveness of Pulsed Dye Laser in management of acne vulgaris. Methods: Medline Pubmed, Scopus, Cochrane library, the reference list, conference pro-ceedings, researchers in field of eligible studies were searched. Eight studies (n=275 sub-jects) were included in qualitative analysis of which six studies (n=190 subjects) were in-cluded in meta-analysis. The mean age of the participant was 21,94 years old. Intervention using application of Pulsed dye laser as monotherapy or combination in acne vulgaris pa-tients with follow-up at least 12 weeks. and the outcomes is a decrease mean of acne vul-garis lesions counts after received pulsed dye laser therapy. Results: Pooling of data using random effects model showed that the group that received PDL therapy alone or in combination had a lower number of acne lesions than the control group with the mean difference was -0.593 (95% CI = -1.290 to 0.104), the z value was -1.668 with p = 0.095. This shows that the number of lesions in the group that received sin-gle or combined PDL therapy was lower than the control group. However the difference is insignificant. Conclusion. From the results of the systematic review conducted, it can be concluded that in the group given Pulsed Dye Laser therapy there was a decrease in the total number of acne vulgaris lesions compared to before treatment, and the decrease, which was indicated by the difference in the mean number of acne lesions, was significantly greater compared to the control who was only given placebo. Pulsed Dye Laser therapy can be an alternative treatment option for acne vulgaris in patients who are unresponsive to previous treatment or conditions where there are contraindications to systemic therapy.