Acne Medical Treatment

All articles published by are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by , including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https:///openaccess.

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Molecules

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Cystic Acne: Dermatologists Explain Causes And Tips To Treat It

Acne is a common inflammatory skin disease which affects the pilosebaceous units of the skin. It can have severe psychological effects and can leave the patient with severe skin scarring. There are four well-recognized pathological factors responsible for acne which is also the target for acne therapy. In this review, different treatment options are discussed, including topical (i.e., retinoids, and antibiotics) and systemic (i.e., retinoids, antibiotics, and hormonal) treatments. Since the general public has been showing an increasing interest in more natural and generally safer treatment options, the use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) for treating acne was also discussed. The use of physical therapies such as comedone extraction, cryoslush therapy, cryotherapy, electrocauterization, intralesional corticosteroids and optical treatments are also mentioned. Acne has been extensively researched with regards to the disease mechanism as well as treatment options. However, due to the increasing resistance of Propionibacterium acnes towards the available antibiotics, there is a need for new treatment methods. Additionally, the lack of necessary evidence on the efficacy of CAM therapies makes it necessary for researchers to investigate these treatment options further.

Acne vulgaris is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the skin. It is found in about 80% of young adults and adolescents. It is a disease that affects the pilosebaceous units of the skin and may result in inflammatory or non-inflammatory lesions [1, 2, 3]. Strauss et al. [4] defined acne as a chronic inflammatory dermatosis which consists of open comedones (blackheads), closed comedones (whiteheads) and inflammatory lesions such as nodules, pustules and papules. Thiboutot et al. [5] suggested that acne should be recognized as a chronic disease which may also affect the patient psychologically.

In recent years, acne has been observed in younger patients due to the earlier onset of puberty [6]. Adebamowo et al. [7] stated that acne is more common in girls in the age range of 12 years and younger, but it presents more in boys in the age range of 15 years or older. In most cases, acne disappears within the patient’s early twenties; however, acne may persist into adulthood which usually occurs more often in females [1].

How To Treat Acne Breakouts

Acne has many negative effects on young adolescents. It causes discomfort, emotional stress, disfigurement and even permanent scarring to the skin. It may also cause anxiety and embarrassment in patients and may diminish the patient’s physiological and social wellbeing [8, 9]. Several factors may induce acne production or increase its severity. Some of these factors include genetics, the male sex, youth, stress and smoking as well as comedogenic medications such as androgens, halogens, corticosteroids and pore clogging cosmetics. Past research suggests that genetic influence combined with comedogenic hormones (especially androgens) produce abnormal volumes of sebum which contribute to acne lesions [1, 3, 10].

At present, there is a widespread interest in the relationship between diet and Acne vulgaris [11]. This relationship will, however, not be discussed in the current article as there is a great deal of information available and forms a subject on its own. Diagnosing acne is simple and straightforward. Differential diagnosis that exists is rosacea (lacks comedones), folliculitis, dermatitis and drug-induced eruptions [10].

The

Acne affects the pilosebaceous units of the skin which presents with a variety of lesions at various inflammatory stages, including acne scars and hyperpigmentation [10, 12]. According to Olutunmbi et al. [10], acne lesions are most commonly present on the face, chest, upper back and upper arms which are known to have a high density of sebaceous glands [6].

The 15 Best Acne Spot Treatments Of 2023

The four main pathological factors involved in the development of acne are the increased sebum production, irregular follicular desquamation, Propionibacterium acnes proliferation and inflammation of area [13]. These four factors are illustrated in Figure 1.

Gollnick [15] stated that androgen hormones (especially testosterone) stimulate increased production and secretion of sebum. Increased sebum production directly correlates with the severity and occurrence of acne lesions and for this reason it is an important factor that should be taken into consideration when dealing with patients suffering from Acne vulgaris [15, 16].

How

The keratinocytes in normal follicles are usually shed to the lumen as single cells which are then excreted. In patients with acne, hyper-proliferation of the keratinocytes occur and they are not shed as they should be, which results in the gathering of the abnormal desquamated corneocytes in the sebaceous follicle along with other lipids and monofilaments. This phenomenon results in comedogenesis [13].

Acnease Natural Acne Medical Treatment (medium Acne, 5 Bottles)

Webster [17] refers to a microcomedone as the first microscopic lesion that forms from occlusion of the follicle, and it is the precursor of the other acne lesions. The microcomedone gradually fills up with more lipids and monofilaments and develops into visible non-inflammatory comedones and inflammatory acne lesions [13, 15, 18]. Comedones are referred to as blackheads (open comedones) when they are dilated at the skin surface. They appear blackish on the skin and are filled with sebum and desquamated keratinocytes. They can also be termed as whiteheads (closed comedones) which appear as a white bump underneath the skins surface with no open pores. If sebum continues to accumulate, the closed comedone will continue to expand and may rupture into the surrounding tissue [15].

The microflora present in a normal sebaceous follicle is qualitatively similar to that found in comedones. This includes three coexisting groups of bacteria, namely (1) coagulase-negative staphylococci (Staphylococcus epidermidis); (2) anaerobic diphtheroids (P. acnes and Propionibacterium granulosum) and (3) lipophilic yeasts (Pityrosporum species) [19].

Best

P. acnes and S. epidermidis differ in their potential to provoke local skin inflammation and to generate pro-inflammatory mediators. It was however determined that S. epidermidis is not likely to partake in the pathogenesis of inflammatory Acne vulgaris skin lesions as the antibody response to S. epidermidis was somewhat harmless compared to the antibodies generated by P. acnes [20]. As S. epidermidis is an aerobe organism and their growth site is superficial, it is incapable of residing in the anaerobe environment of the infra-infundibulum where the inflammatory process occurs [19]. The lipophilic yeasts present in the pilosebaceous unit do not seem to play a noteworthy etiologic part in any disease conditions [19].

Medical Medium: Healing Acne

P. acnes is an anaerobic, gram positive pathogen that colonizes in sebaceous follicles. It is generally more prevalent in areas of the skin that are densely packed with sebaceous follicles because these follicles produce large volumes of sebum that provide a lipid-rich, anaerobic environment that is optimal for P. acnes [15]. It is evident that all individuals have P. acnes present on the surface of the skin which can contribute to follicular clogging, but not all individuals present with acne due to the differences in individual immune response to the pathogen [21]. According to McInturff and Kim [22], P. acnes produces a lipase enzyme that metabolizes the triglycerides of sebum into glycerol and fatty acids, which may in turn assist in the formation of comedones and the inflammation that follows. P. acnes appears to be the most probable organism to cause Acne vulgaris and is therefore the target of oral and topical antibiotic treatments [19].

The inflammatory process begins when P. acnes is detected by the immune system. P. acnes has a highly inflammatory effect which may trigger the release of chemostatic factors such as lymphocytes, neutrophils and macrophages. These factors may cause follicular damage, rupture and leakage of bacteria, fatty acids and lipids into the surrounding dermis. This process will give rise to inflammatory lesions (pustules, nodules, cysts and papules). Inflammatory lesions are filled with pus and are larger than non-inflammatory lesions [9, 12, 13, 15]. Additionally it was found that neutrophils generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) which partially contributes to acne inflammation by damaging the follicular epithelium. This leads to the expulsion of the follicular content into the dermis which consequently causes various inflammatory processes [23].

Best

The main goal of acne treatment is to control and treat existing acne lesions, prevent permanent scarring as far as possible, limit the duration of the disorder and to minimize morbidity. The patient should be informed on the aims involved in preventing new acne lesions

Is Laser Treatment For Acne Safe? If So, Why?