Bay Area Photodynamic Therapy doctors

Nonfacial sun damaged areas such as chest and arms can benefit from a sequential chemopreventive therapy involving combination of topical imiquimod, topical 5-FU, photodynamic therapy (PDT), fractional CO2 laser resurfacing. If you were to elect to use PDT to treat sun damage for back of hands and both arms, you may need to consider lengthening incubation time beyond what would be used for the face as the skin on the arms are thicker than that of the face and would require more incubation time for the medication to penetrate across skin barrier.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

European dermatologists have far more experience using Photodynamic therapy (PDT) to treat basal cell carcinomas than American counterparts. Most of the clinical experience is based on Metvixia rather than Levulan. PDT can serve as a part of sequential nonsurgical therapies for treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma, e.g. imiquimod. However, the only sure way of complete eradication of basal carcioma is via confirmation of clear margins through pathology of excised specimen.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) works by applying Levulan or Metvyxia prior to a blue and/or red light source. PDT can be very effective in managing inflammatory acne, particularly if Accutane is not an option. Out of few hundred photodynamic therapy treatments that my clinic has performed for inflammatory acne, I have not seen exacerbation of blackheads. This may be an unique anomaly, possibly associated with use of comedogenic moisturizer as part of the post-PDT skin care.