Fractional CO₂ Laser and Photodynamic Therapy vs. Laser Alone for Treatment of Actinic Keratoses

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is used for treatment of actinic keratoses (AKs), but it is not as effective in organ transplant patients as in others. Because the ablative fractional laser (AFXL) intensifies PDT response, these investigators evaluated AFXL as a solitary intervention and in combination with PDT for difficult-to-treat AKs and wart-like lesions in organ transplant recipients.

In all, 10 solid organ transplant patients with a total of 680 AKs and 409 wart-like lesions of the dorsal hands received two passes of fractional carbon dioxide to both hands, followed by treatment of one hand per patient with PDT, specifically topical methyl aminolevulinate under occlusion for 3 hours exposure to red light. Four months after treatment, compl…