Predictors of Pain Associated with Photodynamic Therapy: A Retrospective Study of 658 Treatments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-1101Keywords:
actinic keratoses, basal cell carcinoma, field cancerization, pain, photodynamic therapy.Abstract
Pain is the most common side-effect of photodynamic therapy (PDT). Our main objective was to identify pain predictors in PDT. In total, we performed 658 treatments on 377 patients at our department during 2004. Larger sized treatment areas were the strongest pain predictor, and actinic keratoses were more painful to treat than basal cell carcinomas and Bowen’ disease. The most sensitive areas to treat were the face and scalp. Gender and age did not influence pain. Although treatment outcome was not our primary objective, 62% of 95 superficial basal cell carcinomas that were followed for 3 years showed complete clearance. Also, perforation of nodular basal cell carcinomas did not lead to better clinical results. In conclusion, the size of the treatment area, the diagnosis and the lesion location influence pain during PDT. Nevertheless, there is a large variance in visual analogue scale assessment within each group, thereby limiting the ability to predict pain.Downloads
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2011 Christina B. Halldin, Martin Gillstedt, John Paoli, Ann-Marie Wennberg, Helena Gonzalez
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All digitalized ActaDV contents is available freely online. The Society for Publication of Acta Dermato-Venereologica owns the copyright for all material published until volume 88 (2008) and as from volume 89 (2009) the journal has been published fully Open Access, meaning the authors retain copyright to their work.
Unless otherwise specified, all Open Access articles are published under CC-BY-NC licences, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for non-commercial purposes, provided proper attribution to the original work.