LASER THERAPY VERSUS CRYOTHERAPY OF LENTIGINES - A COMPARATIVE TRIAL

Background: Lentigines are common sun-induced benign melanocytic proli ferations. Many therapies have been advocated, but few have been syste mically evaluated. Objective: We studied the effectiveness of two lase r modalities in comparison with liquid nitrogen cryotherapy for lentig ines. Methods: We conducted a randomized, controlled, prospective tria l comparing liquid nitrogen cryotherapy, argon laser light delivered b y a Dermascan shuttered delivery system, and low-fluence carbon dioxid e laser irradiation in the treatment of solar lentigines at 99 sites i n 13 patients. Results: Cryotherapy was more likely to produce substan tial lightening than either argon or CO2 laser treatment, which gave s imilar results (p < 0.05 for both comparisons). The odds of an excelle nt results were about 50% higher with cryosurgery than with CO2 or arg on laser therapy. Conclusion: Liquid nitrogen cryotherapy was superior to argon and CO2 laser therapy in the treatment of benign epidermal p igmented lesions. This study demonstrates that comparative rather than uncontrolled studies are needed to judge the relative efficacy of the rapies for benign pigmented lesions such as lentigines.