THURSDAY, Dec. 27 (HealthDay News) -- In women with polycystic ovary syndrome, the GentleLase alexandrite laser is more effective at reducing facial hirsutism than the Lumina IPL system, according to the results of a study published in the December issue of Lasers in Surgery and Medicine.
D.J. McGill, of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, U.K., and colleagues conducted a split-face study to compare the efficacy of a 3 milliseconds pulse duration alexandrite laser with the Lumina IPL system in 38 women who underwent six treatments using both systems.
The researchers found that median hair-free intervals were longer with the alexandrite laser treatment than with IPL (seven weeks versus two weeks) and that decreases in hair count were significantly higher at one, three and six months (52 percent, 43 percent and 46 percent versus 21 percent, 21 percent and 27 percent). They also found that patient satisfaction scores were higher for the alexandrite laser than for IPL at all three time intervals.
"Despite the poorer results, the Lumina IPL did still result in a significant reduction in hair growth and more than 50 percent of patients were satisfied with treatment," the authors state. "Since the IPL can be used to treat a wide variety of other conditions simply by changing the filter used, and is significantly cheaper to purchase than the alexandrite laser, it still has a role to play in the treatment of facial hair, particularly where one system is wanted to treat a variety of different conditions."
The lead researcher has disclosed a potential financial conflict of interest with this study.
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