Treatment of Plaque Psoriasis With an Excimer Laser Utilizing an Optimal Therapeutic UVB Dose Protocol

JDD News

Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated disease that mainly affects the skin and joints.

Treatment for psoriasis depends on the severity, along with many other factors, and limited psoriasis can often be treated with topical agents, while patients with moderate to severe disease may also need phototherapy by ultraviolet irradiation or systemic therapy.

During phototherapy treatments, therapeutic doses of ultraviolet light may be administered by broadband ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation (290-320 nm), narrowband UVB (311-313 nm), and PUVA – photochemotherapy with psoralen followed by ultraviolet A radiation (320-400 nm).^6,7

A recent study published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology investigates the efficiency and efficacy of the Multi-Micro Dose® diagnostic tip accessory for STRATA’s proprietary XTRAC® 308nm excimer laser in treatment of plaque psoriasis:

[…] treatment with the excimer laser was well tolerated. Similar to previous reports,^11,14-16 erythema was the most common adverse event. No erosions or hyperpigmentation were reported. Two patients experienced blistering after initiation of the actual treatment. Blistering is an expected side effect in phototherapy with the excimer laser, and is usually well tolerated by patients.^14,17,18 Blistering might be related to the user’s techniques (overlapping of laser treatment fields), or it may occur if the plaque’s thickness varies.

The OTDTM protocol with the MMD tip allows adjusting the treatment dose with the excimer laser to specific plaques, resulting in more effective dosing levels and a lower frequency of treatment sessions.