title: Treatment of granuloma annulare with the 595-nm pulsed dye laser, a multicentre retrospective study with long-term follow-up.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Granuloma annulare (GA) is limited in most cases to isolated lesions, but more widespread generalized forms can be observed. In both cases, the treatment remains highly challenging. Isolated case reports suggested the interest of treating GA with a pulsed dye laser (PDL).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the PDL in treating GA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective multicentre study. Each patient should have at least two lesions of GA including at least one that remained untreated to serve as a control. The evaluation was performed on an Investigator Global Assessment for each lesion as compared with baseline.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen patients (five with localized GA and eight with generalized GA) with a total of 59 lesions have been treated with a maximum of three PDL sessions. Sixteen lesions (27.1%) achieved >50% of clearing (14% of lesions for generalized GA and 56.2% for localized GA). Transient hyperpigmentation and crusting were observed in 59% and 86% of lesions respectively. The median follow-up was 6 months (2-12) and 10 lesions (all in generalized GA) recurred after initial clearing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Generalized GA showed weak improvement after treatment with a high recurrence rate. Only localized forms showed notable improvement in a more than half of treated lesions. Thus, PDL could be proposed as an alternative approach, but only for localized forms of GA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Nice, and INSERM U895, C3M, team 12, Nice, France. passeron@unice.fr
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Passeron
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fusade
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vabres
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bousquet-Rouaud
authors.forename: A-M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Collet-Vilette
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dahan
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Toubel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D016460:Granuloma Annulare / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D054025:Lasers, Dye / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult