GRAPEVINE, TEX. – The nonablative fractional thulium 1927-nm laser effectively treated actinic cheilitis in 15 patients, without subsequent downtime or significant side effects, Dr. Robert Anolik reported at the annual meeting of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery.
Current treatments for actinic cheilitis – including surgery, carbon dioxide/erbium laser ablation, electrodesiccation, and 5-fluorouracil – typically involve significant pain, edema, and other adverse effects, including permanent scarring. The 1927-nm thulium laser, which is effective and well tolerated for superficial resurfacing, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating actinic keratoses, said Dr. Anolik of the Laser and Skin Surgery Center of New York.
Dr. Robert Anolik
Charts were reviewed for the 15 patients with actinic cheilitis who had been treated with the nonablative fractional 1,927-nm laser at two private laser and skin surgery centers. All were pretreated with topical anesthetic creams and given oral antiviral prophylaxis. Treatment parameters were 10-20 mJ per MTZ, 65%-70% coverage density, and total delivered energy of 0.08-0.1 kJ.
In blinded assessments of before and after photographs using a quartile improvement scale, all 15 patients had improvements of either 76%-100% (9 patients) or 51%-75% (6 patients) after 1-2 treatments. No adverse events occurred, and the only side effects were transient erythema for 1-4 days and edema for 1-3 days. "This is in stark contrast to the wounding, pain, and downtime expected with the other common treatment strategies," Dr. Anolik commented.
Planned next steps include increasing the patient pool, trial treatment of patients with a range of actinic cheilitis severity, assessment of before/after or left/right specimens for molecular features of actinic cheilitis such as p53, and an evaluation of long term benefit, he noted.
Dr. Anolik stated that he has no relevant relationships with industry.