The effect of multiple sequential light sources to activate aminolevulinic Acid in the treatment of actinic keratoses: a retrospective study.

There is a lack of research regarding the sequential use of multiple light sources for topical 5-aminolevulinic acid activation in photodynamic therapy for actinic keratosis. This study evaluated 5-aminolevulinic acid-photodynamic therapy for actinic keratosis using blue light combined with red light, pulsed dye laser, and/or intense pulsed light in a retrospective fashion. Field-directed 5-aminolevulinic acid-photodynamic therapy was performed with blue light only, blue light + pulsed dye laser, blue light + intense pulsed light, blue light + pulsed dye laser + intense pulsed light, or blue light + red light + pulsed dye laser + intense pulsed light for nonhyperkeratotic actinic keratoses of face, scalp, or upper trunk. Blue light + intense pulsed light + pulsed dye laser produced greater patient-reported improvement in actinic keratoses than blue light or blue light + intense pulsed light and greater subject-reported improvement in overall skin quality than blue light + intense pulsed light. The addition of red light led to no further benefit in either outcome measure. Photodynamic therapy with multiple, sequential laser and light sources led to greater patient-graded improvement in actinic keratoses than that with a single light source (blue light), without significant differences in post-treatment adverse events. However, the small, widely disparate number of patients between groups and follow-up times between patients, as well as retrospective assessments based on subjective patient recall, severely limit the significance of these findings. Nevertheless, the results raise interesting questions regarding the use of multiple light and laser sources for photodynamic therapy of actinic keratoses and warrant further research with a prospective, randomized, controlled study.