13^th Global Dermatologists Congress

Biography

Biography: Bettina Rümmelein

Abstract

Introduction: In the author’s clinic, clientele melasma treatment is of increasing importance not only due to more cases in general, but also due to severe cases. Because of aggressive marketing of cosmetic industry, 90% of the patients have tried more than two cosmeceuticals with bleaching capacity before consulting me. Almost 50% have undergone peeling treatments either by beauticians or doctors with no or only transient success. The goal of this retrospective study was to evaluate a treatment setting with long-lasting success of at least 50% melasma reduction in 100% in the patients of all skin types.
 

Materials & Methods: We followed up 134 female patients who had been treated in the years 2014 and 2015 for the purpose of melasma reduction. The follow-up was performed either personally or by telephonic interview. The question was how satisfied they were with the performed treatment series. Since January 2014, the treatment protocol consisted of five or 10 weekly treatments with a q-switched Nd:YAG laser 1064 nm, 8 mm spot, 1 J applied in a whipping technique with 5–6 passage until the patient feels slight warming of the skin. In addition, the patient applies each morning a sunscreen SPF 50 and every other night a topic bleaching cream with hydrochinone and tretinoin. In 18 cases, the ointment could only be used two times per week due to skin irritations.
 

Results: All patients reported a treatment success of at least 50% deduction of the hyperpigmentation, 89 patients reported more than 75% improvement. To the question of recurrence, 133 patients reported none or minimal relapse, one patient had a full relapse. There were no differences observed between patients of different skin type (skin type I: 0 patients, skin type II: 28 patients, skin type III: 81 patients, skin type IV: 8 patients, skin type V: 16 patients, skin type VI: 2 patients).