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A Clinical Study on Treatment of Facial Freckles with Intense
Pulsed Light
Yan Xiao
Dipartment of Dermatology,Southwest Hospital,Third Military Medical University,Chongqing 400038,China
Abstract: Purpose: To explore the clinical effect of intense pulsed light on freckles. Methods: A total of
102 patients with facial freckles treated in our hospital between November 2014 and May 2017 were taken
as the subjects of this study. The patients, after being confirmed with facial freckles, were treated with M22
Photorejuvenation, and evaluated at the end of the treatment in terms of therapeutic effect, adverse reactions,
changes of indicators before and after treatment as well as relapse. Results: In terms of treatment effect,
there were 46 patients (45.10%) above expectation, 50 patients (49.02%) up to expectation and 6 patients
(5.88%) below the standard, with a total effective rate of 94.12%. In terms of adverse reactions, there were 8
patients with temporary facial flushing, 4 patients with mild edema and 3 patients with burning sensation,
with a probability of 14.71%. In terms of indicator changes before and after treatment, the skin elasticity
and skin moisture of each part of the patient's face were improved, with the skin elasticity of the patient's
forehead and lower jaw up by 8.9% and 8%, respectively, and the skin moisture of the patient's left cheek up
by 25.7%, which was very obvious. In addition, the proportion of melanin and skin oil of the patients were
significantly reduced, with the melanin proportion of the left cheek down by 30.1% and the overall skin oil
proportion of the face down by about 1%. At the end of the treatment, 5 patients had freckle recurrence,
with a recurrence rate of 4.90%, which was statistically significant (P<0.05). Discussion: The intense pulsed
light is an effective tool in the treatment of facial freckles. Despite occasional adverse reactions, multiple
indicators of various parts of the patient's face have been significantly improved, with a low probability of
later recurrence, making it worthy of clinical promotion.
1 Introduction
Facial freckles not only affect the patient's appearance,
but may also cause other skin diseases under certain
circumstances, undermining the patient’s personal image
and life quality. Therefore, the study took 102 patients
with facial freckles who had received treatment in our
hospital as the subjects of the research to observe the
efficacy of M22 Photorejuvenation against facial freckles.
The procedures were as follows.
2 Research Information
2.1 General Information
A total of 102 patients with facial freckles treated in our
hospital between November 2014 and May 2017 were
taken as the subjects of this study. The patients were
confirmed with facial freckles, and the hospital sought
the consent of all patients and their families. Among all
the patients, there were 10 male patients and 92 female
patients, aging from 20 to 41 years old with an average
age of 33.9±3.5 years old. In terms of freckle distribution,
25 patients had freckles in the zygomatic region, 49 in
the buccal region, 26 in the nasal region, and 2 in both
the nasal and buccal regions. In terms of the color of the
freckles, 40 patients had lighter freckles while the other
patients were darker. All the patients were non-allergic,
with freckles ranging from 1 to 4 mm in size, and none of
the patients had been treated with drugs that had an
impact on the treatment of freckles for within a month.
The general information of the patients was not
significant (P>0.05).
2.2 Research methods
2.2.1 Instrument selection
In this study, M22 Photorejuvenation was used to treat
patients, with an output wavelength of 400nm-1200nm
(blue) and 500nm-1200nm (yellow) and a spot area of
47mmX21mm and 20mmX10mm. In terms of pulse, the
pulse width of the M22 Photorejuvenation is set between
25nm-55nm and the working interval stands at 2-6
seconds. Other parameters can be set according to the
actual needs of patients.
2.2.2 Treatment
All patients were treated with M22 Photorejuvenation for
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© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
facial freckles. As part of the preparation before
treatment, the patient should first be kept in an
appropriate position to ensure that he/she is in the state of
supine. The patient’s face was cleaned to fully expose the
freckles so that doctors could determine the location of
the freckles. Both doctors and patients should measure to
protect their eyes against the strong light emitted by the
instrument. A picture of the patient's face was taken
before treatment to facilitate postoperative comparison.
Before treating the patient with the M22
Photorejuvenation, cold gel was applied to the head or
local area of the instrument, and then light spots were
emitted, with 3 or 4 light spots at a time. The cold gel
was reapplied before each emission until the last
emission. Then the cold gel was removed and the face
was cleaned. Finally, in case of facial swelling that would
affect the observation of the freckles, appropriate
regulation of energy density was required to avoid
pigmentation, facial edema and other adverse reactions.
Ice was applied to the area receiving treatment with a
duration of no more than 30 minutes. Doctors and nurses
should always remind the patients of sun protection, and
give patients vitamin C, vitamin E as well as endothelin
antagonists as an adjuvant therapy. All patients received
3 courses of treatment, each course with 3-5 times of
treatment. After the treatment, the effect of treatment,
adverse reactions, changes in indicators before and after
treatment, and recurrence were investigated.
2.3 Evaluation Standard
Our hospital divided the treatment efficacy into three
categories: distinct, effective and ineffective. Patients
whose pigmentation was reduced by more than 50%
were rated as distinct. Patients were rated as effective if
their pigmentation was reduced by between 25% and
50%. Patients with less than a 25% reduction in
pigmentation were rated as ineffective.
2.4 Statistics
SPSS 22.0 was used to analyze the data, where X±s
represented the counting data, and X2 for the test of the
counting data. The data in the study were examined by T
test, and those whose P<0.05 was considered statistically
significant.
3 Result
3.1 Effects of treatment
Our hospital conducted a detailed examination on the
treatment effect of the patients, among which 46 patients
achieved obvious effects, accounting for 45.10% of the
total; 50 patients had effective treatment, accounting for
49.02%. Only 6 patients had poor or ineffective treatment.
The overall effective rate was as high as 94.12%,
indicating statistical significance (P<0.05).
Table 1 Treatment Effect of Patients [n (%)]
Case
Numb
er
Obviously
Effective
Effective
Ineffectiv
e
Effective
Cases in Total
102
46(45.10)
50(49.02)
6(5.88)
101(94.12)
3.2 Adverse reactions among patients
In this study, a total of 15 patients had adverse reactions,
including 8 patients with temporary facial flushing, 4
patients with mild edema, and 3 patients with burning
pain. The incidence of adverse reactions was 14.71%,
showing statistical significance (P<0.05).
Table 2 Adverse Reactions among Patients [n (%)]
Case
Numb
er
Temporary
Facial
Flushing
Mild
Edema
Burning
Pain
Cases of
Adverse
Reactions
102
8(7.84)
4(3.92)
3(2.94)
15(14.71)
3.3 Changes of indicators before and after
treatment
The hospital carried out a comprehensive examination of
indicators including the skin elasticity, melanin level,
skin moisture and skin oil level of the patients before and
after treatment by detecting body parts such as the
forehead, left cheek, right cheek, nasal tip and lower jaw.
It was found that the skin elasticity and skin moisture of
all the tested parts of the patients were significantly
improved while the level of skin melanin and skin oil
decreased, among which improvement in the skin
elasticity of the forehead and the lower jaw were the
most significant, with an increase of 8.9% and 8.0%,
respectively. The skin moisture of the patient’s left cheek
increased the most by 25.7%, while the melanin level of
the patient's left cheek decreased significantly by 30.1%.
In addition, there was a slight decrease in the skin oil
level. The data were statistically significant (P<0.05).
Table 3 Changes of Indicators Before and After Treatment (%)
Body
Part
Skin
Elasticity
Melanin
Level
Skin
Moisture
Skin Oil
Level
Forehe
ad
+8.9
-17.9
+10.8
-0.15
Left
Cheek
+2.8
-30.1
+25.7
-0.11
Right
Cheek
+1.7
-23.6
+10.1
-0.08
Nasal
Tip
+1.6
-2.0
+3.0
-0.17
Lower
Jaw
+8.0
-6.1
+3.9
-0.15
3.4 Recurrence after treatment
After the treatment, 5 patients experienced freckle
recurrence, that is, the recurrence rate was 4.90%.
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4 Discussion
There are many ways to treat freckles in clinical practice,
including laser and skin peeling treatment. However,
these traditional treatment approaches could lead to
severe pigmentation, leaving obvious scars in the
patient’s face and a lot of pain and adverse reactions
during the treatment. In this study, the M22
Photorejuvenation was used to remove freckles by
changing the temperature of patients’ facial skin in
different parts and decompose the pigment diagram and
pigment cells based on the intense pulse light. In this
study, the overall effective rate of treatment reached
94.12%, and the incidence of adverse reactions was
14.71%. All patients were significantly improved in
terms of each indicator after treatment, with a low level
of injury to the patients’ faces and a recurrence rate of
only 4.90%. In general, the treatment of facial freckles
with intense pulsed light has a significantly better effect
than traditional treatment methods, with a lower
incidence of adverse reactions, and thus it is worthy of
promotion.
References
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2. Liu Hongli. Clinical Studies of 40 Cases of Facial
Freckles Treatment by Intense Pulse Light [J]. China
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3. Zhang Fang. Clinical Observation of Facial Freckles
Treatment by Intense Pulse Light [J]. China Medical
Cosmetology, 2015, 5 (06): 62-63.
4. Zhao Junwen. Clinical Analysis of Facial Freckles
Treatment by Intense Pulse Light [J]. World Latest
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