laser treatment for acne

laser treatment for acne

Trials are to start on a laser treatment that could revolutionise treatment for acne. Just one session may be effective for two or three months.
For thousands of sufferers it could be a replacement for other forms of treatment, including skin creams and drugs.
The technology is being pioneered at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, where trials will begin on 40 patients next month.
It is based on the same kind of laser techniques used by doctors to get rid of wrinkles and tone down acne scarring.
While it was being used for scar removal, it was noticed that existing acne cleared up in the area where the laser was targeted.
'In the process of treating scarring, it was found that acne seemed to turn off as well. There is now enough anecdotal reporting of this to warrant a formal study,' says Dr Tony Chu, consultant dermatologist at the Hammersmith, who is leading the research.
Lasers tackle wrinkles and scarring from chicken pox or acne by destroying the upper few layers of the skin, removing the indents of the scars. The skin's natural healing process then leads to a smoothing of the overall appearance and feel of the skin.
The lasers, which use yellow light to take out the skin layers, are thought to work against acne itself in a different way, by destroying the bacteria that infects it.
Acne occurs when oilsecreting glands in the skin get clogged and become inflamed or infected. Despite the blockage, glands in the skin carry on producing sebum oil, resulting in a swelling behind the blockage which causes a white head spot, or a blackhead if the sebum is exposed to air but still stuck in the pore.
The blocked pores can also become infected with a bacteria leading to swelling and the large red spots of acne.
The most common places for outbreaks of acne are the face, shoulders, back and chest where oil production is most heavily concentrated. Within
this bacteria is a chemical sensitive to oxygen, and it is thought that the laser therapy works by destroying this key compound.
The chemical does not like oxygen and dies when it comes into contact with it. The laser is believed to be effective because it generates oxygen at the point where it comes into contact with the skin.
'It releases oxygen and because the chemical can live only without oxygen, it is killed,' says Dr Chu. 'It is a very simple mechanism. If it works in the way we think it will work, one zap will clear you for a couple of months.
'It means you will be able to go to your dermatology clinic and have the treatment every few months to keep your acne under control, rather than taking pills.
'Its big advantage over any other form of treatment is that it would keep you clear for a period of time after just one treatment.'
Dr Chu's trial will focus initially on patients with mild to moderate acne. Another advantage of the therapy is that sufferers cannot develop a resistance to it as they can to antibiotics, one of the frontline treatments for the disease.
Researchers in Leeds who have been monitoring 800 acne sufferers for more than ten years have found that half of acne sufferers in Britain now carry mutated forms of acne bacteria on their skin which do not respond to a range of antibiotics.
Dr Chu says that large numbers of people could benefit from the therapy.
'Acne affects 90 per cent of adolescents, but the important thing to realise is that it isn't just a teenage disease, it's a disease that can span right the way through to adult life.
Most sufferers get acne in their teens or early 20s, with the peak risk years between 16 and 20.
The majority get over it within a few years, but for some the problem is life long, and as many as one man in 25 over 40 still has acne.
Acne can be made worse by emotional stress, fatigue, and the use of some cosmetics. Although acne cannot be prevented, its impact can be reduced.
Not wearing headbands or chinstraps, not using oil based soaps and cosmetics, not constantly touching the face and thereby spreading infection, and not getting sunburnt can all help.
Oily and humid environments are best avoided, and so, too, is the teenage habit of squeezing the spots.