Update in Laser Hair Removal

• Known limitations: a reminder
  • the result might might be good but “complete” hair removal is not possible
  • ineffective on white hair

• Combining medical treatments with lasers
  • Ornithin decarboxylaser (eflornithine) is a known treatment against hirsutism and is a known medical topical treatment to induce hair thinning.
  • The presenter sought to evaluate the effect of topical eflornithine + lasers (abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17270315)
  • Monthly treatment sessions with the alexandrite laser for  6 months (one side treated with l+e and the other treated with laser alone)
  • Results: with eflornithine and lasers works better after 3 months. Although the difference is less visible after 6 months, it remains statistically significant.

• Laser hair removal can induce hair growth:
  • It is a paradoxical effect
  • The presenter reports a patient undergoing 7 Alexandrite laser sessions (energy 23-47 J/cm2) developeing hair growth.
  • Comments:
    • in an Iranian study in 2009 in including 991 patients, a paradoxical effect was observed in 5.5% of cases.
    • When combining the results from several studies and reports, the overall risk seems to be around 5%
  • Solution: inform the patient of the risk of paradoxical hair growth

Contributors

Dr Christophe Hsu – dermatologist. Geneva, Switzerland
Source of Information: Lui H. Laser Pearls. Pearls from Clinical and Investigative Dermatology. 2014 (4) – 21st Regional Conference of Dermatology; Danang (Vietnam)