A Comparison of Red and Blue Light Emitting Diode Lights in Photodynamic Therapy for the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris

Park, Hyeon Young; Yun, Sook Jung; Kim, Seong Jin; Lee, Seung Chul; Won, Young Ho; Lee, Jee Bum

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Acne vulgaris is a very common inflammatory disease, particularly in adolescents and young adults. Problems such as the inconvenience of long term treatment, the resistance of Propionibacterium acnes to antibiotics and the side effects of isotretinoin have led to investigate photodynamic therapy for the treatment of acne vulgaris.
OBJECTIVE
We wanted to evaluate of the efficacy and safety of topical methyl aminolevulinate-photodynamic therapy (MAL-PDT) using red and blue light emitting diode (LED) lights on acne vulgaris.
METHODS
Thirty two patients with inflammatory facial acne were treated with topical MAL-PDT with red LED light on the right side and blue LED light on the left side at 2-week intervals for three sessions. MAL was applied to the acne lesions on the entire face with a 45-minutes incubation time. Evaluation was performed by counting the acne lesions at baseline, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks after the beginning of the treatment.
RESULTS
After 12 weeks of PDT, we found a statistically significant reduction of the inflammatory and non-inflammatory acne lesions from baseline using both red and blue LED lights. Yet there was no significant difference in effectiveness between the two treatments on the inflammatory and non-inflammatory acne lesions. Some of the patients experienced transient erythema, stinging, pain and hyperpigmentation with both treatments.
CONCLUSION
Photodynamic therapy with red and blue LED lights appeared to be an effective and safe therapeutic modality for the inflammatory and non-inflammatory acne lesions of mild to moderate acne vulgaris, although there was no significant difference in the efficacy between the two kinds of lights.