Low level narrow band light treatment of Acne Vulgaris
Avikam Harel, M.D. & Gideon Earon, M.D./N.D
Pediatric Dermatology Outpatient Clinic
Dana Pediatric Medical Center, Ichilov Hospital
Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Introduction
Phototherapy treatment using low level intensity visible red light (soft laser) for wound healing is well-documented. However, its worldwide use is prohibitively expensive and requires a clinical setting. Using a handy, safe and low-cost red
(660 nm) and infra-red (940 nm) light system (Bio-Beam narrow band light treatment system), we performed a clinical trial to evaluate the therapeutic effect of low level narrow band light treatment on pustule Acne Vulgaris.
Design
Double-blind randomized clinical trial comparing red (660 nm), infrared (940 nm) and placebo light emitters.
Patients
Thirty patients with pustular Acne Vulgaris randomly assigned to the three treatment groups.
Intervention
Self-applied treatment for 5 minutes on each infected area twice a day for 6 weeks.
Main outcome neasures
Patients were evaluated at zero hour and after two four and six weeks of treatment. Comedons, pustules and subjective feeling of inflammation were measured and coded on a scale of 1 to 5, separately, for each criterion. Changes on this scale from baseline were recorded for each subject and evaluated at the end of the study.
Results
The group treated by infra-red light did show some improvement in all three aspects, but the differences were slight and statistically insignificant compared to the placebo group results.
However, the group treated by red light did exhibit an improvement greater by about one scale unit than that of the placebo group. The results were statistically insignificant in the comedon formation criteria (p=0.9) while for the pustule reduction and subjective feeling of inflammation the results were statistically significant (p values of 02 and 03).
Conclusions
Law level narrow band light treatment proved to be effective in reducing the inflammatory process in Acne Vulgaris. However, there is room to extend this study to a larger and more heterogeneous group of patients.