An open study to determine the efficacy of blue light in the treatment of mild to moderate acne

Abstract

Eight 10- or 20-minute treatments over 4 weeks with a narrowband blue light was found to be effective in reducing the number of inflamed lesions in subjects with mild to moderate acne. The treatment had little effect on the number of comedones. The onset of the effect was observable at the first assessment, at week 5, and maximal between weeks 8 and 12. Blue light phototherapy using a narrowband LED light source appears to be a safe and effective additional therapy for mild to moderate acne.

Blue and red light combination LED phototherapy for acne vulgaris in patients with skin phototype IV

“…This tendency might be caused by the fact that P. acnes, the main target of light therapy, resides mostly in inflammatory acne lesions [51]. The mean percentage improvement of inflammatory lesions was similar to that of Papageorgiou's study [24] where the mixture of blue and red light was used (76%), but higher than those where blue light was used alone such as Gold et al [31] (36%), Elman et al [27] (59-67%), Morton et al [30] (64%), Kawada et al [26] (papule:69.3%, pustules: 73.3%), and Tzung et al [28] (approximately 60% improvement in papulopustular lesions and 20% aggravation in nodulocystic lesions, exact numerical data not provided). It was notable that the nodulocystic lesions responded to our treatment as well, whereas they were aggravated in Tzung's study [28] where blue light was used alone.…”

“…In addition to the wound healing enhancement, photorejuvenation, which refers to the process where light is used to improve photoaged skin, has been proposed as another application of LED by Weiss et al [46][47][48][49] (590 nm) and Russell et al [50] (633 and 830 nm). The use of blue LEDs in the treatment of acne was reported by Morton et al [30], which showed a good treatment effect on inflammatory acne lesions. Although the exact mechanisms of action have not yet been clarified, LEDs are considered to be highly effective in enhancing cellular activities through mitochondrial photobiomodulation (visible red waveband) as well as in eliciting the photodynamic destruction of P. acnes (visible blue waveband) [30,45].…”

“…The use of blue LEDs in the treatment of acne was reported by Morton et al [30], which showed a good treatment effect on inflammatory acne lesions. Although the exact mechanisms of action have not yet been clarified, LEDs are considered to be highly effective in enhancing cellular activities through mitochondrial photobiomodulation (visible red waveband) as well as in eliciting the photodynamic destruction of P. acnes (visible blue waveband) [30,45].…”

“…Many clinical studies have proved the efficacy of blue light in the treatment of acne [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Among them, a unique clinical study performed by Papageorgiou et al [24] tried the mixture of blue and red light from fluorescent lamps for acne, which showed mean percentage improvements in comedones and inflammatory lesions of 58% and 76%, respectively.…”

“…The absorption peak of the bacterial porphyrins is at 415 nm, which falls into the blue light waveband [15]. Many clinical studies have demonstrated the efficacy of blue light phototherapy for acne with various success rates [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”