Objectives: • Become familiar with what the literature says about laser-assisted drug delivery in nail tissue
• Understand the risks and benefits of laser pretreatment in the topical management of nail disease
• Learn from our early-adopter experience with laser-assisted topical treatment of nail psoriasis
Introduction: Ablative fractional laser (AFL) pretreatment for topical therapy of nail disease is gaining ground. To investigate the safety and efficacy of this drug-device treatment approach, we conducted a randomized intra-patient controlled trial on laser-assisted Calcipotriol/Betamethasone Dipropionate (Cal/BD) foam treatment for psoriatic nail disease (PND) and provided an overview of the pertinent literature.
Materials / method: We included 11 patients with 144 psoriatic nails with an average NAPSI score (0-130) of 80. Half of each patient’s nails were randomized to receive AFL at baseline, week 6, and week 12. Patients were instructed to apply Cal/BD foam once daily for 24 weeks. Treatment response was monitored clinically supported with patient-reported outcome measures, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and patient-obtained photographs using a smartphone app.
For the systematic literature review, two investigators searched Pubmed for clinical trials on laser-assisted topical treatment of nail disease.
Results: Cal/BD achieved a reduction in NAPSI -68% (p=0.001), 60% decrease in quality of life burden, and a 43% reduction in OCT-assessed PND. AFL pretreatment achieved higher clinical (NAPSI -78%) and OCT-assessed (-46%) improvement than Cal/BD alone (NAPSI -58%, OCT -37%) but with no significant difference. Smartphone app images documented paronychia (n=1) and mild local skin reactions.
We identified 21 articles on AFL pretreatment for onychodystrophy (n=1), PND (n=3), and onychomycosis (n=17). The majority of studies (90.5%) concluded that AFL pretreatment is safe and effective.
Conclusion: While Cal/BD foam treatment substantially improved PND both with and without AFL, the available literature suggests that laser pretreatment could be a clinically relevant enhancement strategy for various types of topical therapies. Future studies on the impact of laser settings and choice of formulation may help optimize the efficacy of laser-assisted topical treatment of nail disease.
Declaraciones
¿Ha recibido algún tipo de financiamiento para realizar su investigación sobre esta temática?
Si
Por favor especifique las entidades (individuo, empresa, sociedad): LEO Pharma
¿Ha recibido algún pago, honorario u otra compensación por su trabajo acerca de esta investigación?
No
¿Tiene vínculos financieros con alguna entidad que podría llegar a competir estrechamente con los medicamentos, materiales o instrumentos tratados en su investigación?
No
¿Posee o ha solicitado una patente relacionada a los materiales, productos o instrumentos utilizados en su investigación?
No
Este trabajo es presentado gracias al apoyo de: LEO Pharma