patients experienced erythema, and 79% experienced edema.20 ALA treatment increased the rate of stinging/burning from 16% at baseline to 64% during the incubation period following application and prior to light treatment; 96% of patients reported stinging/burning during light treatment. These side effects all subsided at follow-up visits, when rates were lower than those observed at baseline.20 The AK recurrence rate was 24% (162/688); 139 were biopsied. Rates of SCC or BCC diagnosis among biopsied lesions were 7% and 0.7%.
In the upper extremity trial by Berman et al, ALA-PDT was generally well tolerated, and reactions to treatment were nonserious and resolved within several weeks. Compared with vehicle pretreatment, ALA pretreatment increased the incidence and severity of side effects associated with PDT, including erythema, edema, stinging/burning, scaling, dryness, and oozing/vesiculation/crusting. No clinically significant AEs were reported in either treatment group.1 Similar results were found by Jiang et al; the incidence of erythema appeared
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