Researchers found that porphyrins were ten times more sensitive to light released by the new machine than light released at other wavelengths. Treatment is straightforward and painless. Each session last ten minutes and involves lying on a bed while the light is projected from above.
Goggles are worn to protect the eyes and the only sensation experienced by a patient is a slight feeling of warmth. Because the Clearlight machine is large - it resembles a large operating theatre light - it is able to cover extensive areas of skin in one session.
There is no risk to the patient from skin cancer because it operates at wavelengths different from potentially harmful UV rays produced by sun lamps.
The manufacturers estimate that it would help around 50 per cent of people suffering from acne. An eight-week course costs £520. The decision on who is suitable for treatment is made by doctors, who are also the only people who can carry out the treatment.
Dr Salma Uddin, a GP in Croydon, Surrey, has been using Clearlight in her private practice with the assistance of a consultant dermatologist.
'We have found the results so far very impressive,' she says. 'The patients like the device because they see almost instant results while the creams and tablets take ages and don't always work.
'Another problem with long-term antibiotic treatment is that the acne bug tends to become resistant, and disfiguring acne makes a return. Patients also complain about side-effects such as stomach upsets from taking tablets over such a long period.'
One of Dr Uddin's patients, Karen Fisher, 26, a secretary from Sutton, Surrey, has just undergone a four-week treat-ment using the light therapy and says she is 'extremely happy'.
'My acne has affected my self-confidence and I was fed up with taking creams and tablets all the time. Dr Uddin told me about the therapy when she gave me emergency treatment for a large infected spot on the side of my face.
'I'd say that about two-thirds of my spots have gone and I feel a lot better about myself. I work in an office with a lot of people and they can't help noticing that you've got spots.'
Daniel Eason, 23, an electrical engineer from Harrogate, has just completed a course of treatment. He says: 'I've been covered with acne from head to toe which stopped me going out as a teenager.
'Over the years I've tried everything - even mud packs - without much success. I would say the treatment has cleared about 70 per cent of my spots.
You get a warm feeling on the part of your body where the doctor is aiming the light - it doesn't hurt.' The new treatment has received a guarded reception from the Acne Support Group. 'We welcome anything new that can relieve the misery acne causes many millions of people,' says chief executive Alison Dudley.
'But one thing people will have to bear in mind is that it might not always work for them and that at more than £500 a course, it is expensive.' The manufacturers hope the treatment will eventually be available on the NHS.
Could a laser cure acne?
Trials are to start on a laser treatment that could revolutionise treatment for acne. Just one session may be effective for two or three months.
For thousands of sufferers it could be a replacement for other forms of treatment, including skin creams and drugs.
The technology is being pioneered at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, where trials will begin on 40 patients next month.
It is based on the same kind of laser techniques used by doctors to get rid of wrinkles and tone down acne scarring.
While it was being used for scar removal, it was noticed that existing acne cleared up in the area where the laser was targeted.
'In the process of treating scarring, it was found that acne seemed to turn off as well. There is now enough anecdotal reporting of this to warrant a formal study,' says Dr Tony Chu, consultant dermatologist at the Hammersmith, who is leading the research.
Lasers tackle wrinkles and scarring from chicken pox or acne by destroying the upper few layers of the skin, removing the indents of the scars. The skin's natural healing process then leads to a smoothing of the overall appearance and feel of the skin. The lasers, which use yellow light to take out the skin layers, are thought
to work against acne itself in a different way, by destroying the bacteria that
infects it.
Acne occurs when oilsecreting glands in the skin get clogged and become inflamed or infected. Despite the blockage, glands in the skin carry on producing sebum oil, resulting in a swelling behind the blockage which causes a white head spot, or a blackhead if the sebum is exposed to air but still stuck in the pore.
The blocked pores can also become infected with a bacteria leading to swelling and the large red spots of acne.
The most common places for outbreaks of acne are the face, shoulders, back and chest where oil production is most heavily concentrated. Within this bacteria is a chemical sensitive to oxygen, and it is thought that the laser therapy works by destroying this key compound.
The chemical does not like oxygen and dies when it comes into contact with it. The laser is believed to be effective because it generates oxygen at the point where it comes into contact with the skin.
'It releases oxygen and because the chemical can live only without oxygen, it is killed,' says Dr Chu. 'It is a very simple mechanism. If it works in the way we think it will work, one zap will clear you for a couple of months.
'It means you will be able to go to your dermatology clinic and have the treatment every few months to keep your acne under control, rather than taking pills.
'Its big advantage over any other form of treatment is that it would keep you clear for a period of time after just one treatment.'
Dr Chu's trial will focus initially on patients with mild to moderate acne. Another advantage of the therapy is that sufferers cannot develop a resistance to it as they can to antibiotics, one of the frontline treatments for the disease.
Researchers in Leeds who have been monitoring 800 acne sufferers for more than ten years have found that half of acne sufferers in Britain now carry mutated forms of acne bacteria on their skin which do not respond to a range of antibiotics.
Dr Chu says that large numbers of people could benefit from the therapy.
'Acne affects 90 per cent of adolescents, but the important thing to realise is that it isn't just a teenage disease, it's a disease that can span right the way through to adult life.
Most sufferers get acne in their teens or early 20s, with the peak risk years between 16 and 20.
The majority get over it within a few years, but for some the problem is life long, and as many as one man in 25 over 40 still has acne.
Acne can be made worse by emotional stress, fatigue, and the use of some cosmetics. Although acne cannot be prevented, its impact can be reduced.
Not wearing headbands or chinstraps, not using oil based soaps and cosmetics, not constantly touching the face and thereby spreading infection, and not getting sunburnt can all help.
Oily and humid environments are best avoided, and so, too, is the teenage habit of squeezing the spots. |
