A Comparative Study of Topical 5‐Aminolevulinic Acid Incubation Times in Photodynamic Therapy with Intense Pulsed Light for the Treatment of Inflammatory Acne

BACKGROUND Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with topical 5‐aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is used for effective treatment of facial acne vulgaris. OBJECTIVES To determine which of two different incubation times (30 minutes and 3 hours) is more effective in PDT with intense pulsed light (IPL) for acne vulgaris. METHODS & MATERIALS Twenty Korean subjects with moderate to severe acne were enrolled for a randomized, half‐facial treatment study. Three sessions with short incubation with ALA plus IPL (30 minutes, n=9) or long incubation with ALA plus IPL (3 hours, n=11) on one side of the face and IPL alone on the other side were performed at 1‐month intervals. RESULTS All subjects showed improvement in inflammatory acne lesions after three sessions of ALA‐PDT or IPL alone (p