title: A comparative study of focal medium-depth chemical peel versus cryosurgery for the treatment of solar lentigo.
abstract: Recently, focal chemical peels with trichloroacetic acid (TCA) have been introduced for the treatment of pigmentary disorders to minimize the side effects such as pain or scarring associated with medium-to-deep chemical peeling. This is a controlled, prospective study to compare the efficacy of a focal medium-depth chemical peel regimen using 70% glycolic acid and 35% TCA with cryosurgery, in the treatment of solar lentigines of the hands. Twenty-five patients were treated with either focal medium-depth chemical peel or cryosurgery, which was randomly assigned to the left or right hand. Clinical improvement was graded by the three blinded investigators 2-months after the treatment. In the focal medium-depth chemical peel treated side, clearing was achieved in four out of 23 patients (17.4%) compared with five out of 23 patients (21.7%) in the cryosurgery treated side. Statistically, the difference between the clinical improvement of solar lentigines with chemical peel and cryosurgery was not significant, according to chi-square test (p = 0.940). However, we suggest that treatment of the solar lentigines with a focal medium-depth chemical peel may be clinically superior to treatment with cryosurgery, due to the paucity of side effects, such as hypopigmentation and pain, associated with the chemical peel regimen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Gaziosmanpasa University School of Medicine, Tokat 60100, Turkey. eseze@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Engin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sezer
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Erbil
authors.forename: Zafer
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kurumlu
authors.forename: Halis Bülent
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Taştan
authors.forename: Ilker
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Etikan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002615:Chemexfoliation / Q000379:methods*; D003452:Cryosurgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007911:Lentigo / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged