김방순 원장이 11월 26일부터 27일까지 대만 타이페이에서 열리는
대만피부과학회(The 37th Annual Meeting of the Taiwanese Dermatological Association)에서 IPL 관련 강의를 합니다.
이번 강의의 제목은 “Basic concept of IPL treatment for melasma”로서
치료가 힘든 기미를 IPL로 효과적으로 치료하는데 필요한 기본적인 개념과
실제 치료하는데 필요한 치료 세팅에 대해 강의하였습니다.
Basic Concept of IPL Treatment for melasma
Bangsoon Kim
S&U Dermatologic Clinic, Seoul, Korea
Melasma is one of the most common esthetic problems in Asians. Melasma has significant emotional, social, and psychological impacts on quality of life and it is frequently refractory to various treatments including topical bleaching agents, chemical peeling, and laser/light treatments. Various lasers including Q-switched ruby laser, 532nm Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, a combination of Q-switched alexandrite laser and CO2 laser, and fractional resurfacing laser have been used for the treatment of melasma , but the results were usually disappointing because of no effect or even aggravation of melasma. Recently frequent treatment with low fluence using Q-switched Nd:YAG laser has been very popular in Korea for the treatment of melasma, which has been considered as one of the most effective treatments. However, that technique sometimes shows side-effects such as rebound hyperpigmentation and/or mottled hypopigmentation, which probably caused by too short pulse width, too frequent treatment, or relatively high fluence.
Thanks to the gentler nature of IPL treatments, the possibility of postinflammatory hyperpigmentation is markedly reduced, which is the most significant complication of laser therapy in dark skinned patients. Therefore IPL treatment is very popular for the treatment of pigmentary lesions including melasma and postinflammatory hyperpigmentation in Korea.
The IPL devices use noncoherent, polychromatic light manipulated with cut-off filters to meet the requirements for selective photothermolysis. It is necessary to adjust several variables, such as cut-off filter, fluence, number of pulses, pulse duration, and delay time, appropriately to get good clinical outcome. I will discuss the basic concept of IPL treatment for melasma and how to adjust variable parameters.