A promising new treatment for Riehl's melanosis, an intractable, acquired pigmentary disorder, has just become available.
Riehl's melanosis is an acquired dermal pigmented skin disorder characterized by grayish-brown pigment deposits on the face and neck, primarily in dark-skinned middle-aged women. It has been considered an incurable pigmentary disease due to its poor treatment and lack of a definitive cure.
However, a team led by Professor Park Young-jun of the Department of Dermatology at Ajou University Hospital (along with specialists Kim Yul-hee and Baek Doo-jin Baek) found that Riehl's melanosis can be effectively treated with a combination of pico-laser and pulsed-dye laser.
The researchers analyzed the skin pathology of 13 patients diagnosed with Riehl's melanosis and found melanin pigmentation and vasodilation in the dermis.
The researchers performed a combination treatment using pico-laser and pulsed-dye laser, which is useful for treating dermal melanin pigmentation and vascular lesions.
Pico-laser is a laser that destroys melanin pigment and is mainly used to improve pigmentary diseases such as skin whitening, freckles, and sunspots. The pulsed-dye laser targets hemoglobin oxide and has been used to treat skin diseases caused by the expansion and proliferation of blood vessels, such as rosacea, hemangioma, and flame nevus.
The researchers divided the patients into two groups: those treated with pico-laser alone for pigmentation and those treated with a combination of pico-laser and pulsed-dye laser to determine the degree of reduction in "dermal pigmentation extent and severity.”
The results showed 14.6 percent in the monotherapy group and 47.0 percent in the combined pico-laser and pulsed-dye laser group, showing that pigmentation was reduced more than three times more in the combined treatment group. Patients were particularly satisfied with the combination treatment as they experienced few side effects.
Lentiginous melanosis is a dermal pigmentation that occurs with an inflammatory response due to continuous exposure to allergens, and it isn't easy to find the causative agent. Dermal pigmentation is not easy to treat with laser, the research team said
"Significantly, we have proposed an effective treatment for Riehl's melanosis, a serious skin disease that is difficult to treat," Professor Park said. "It is also noted as a case of confirming good therapeutic results by applying the histological characteristics of the skin to the clinic."
The study was published in August in the international journal Photodermatology, photoimmunology and photomedicine under the title, “A novel treatment for Riehl's melanosis targeting both dermal melanin and vessels.”