Treatment of Mild to Moderate Facial Chrono- and Photodamage with a Novel Intense Liquid Trichloroacetic Acid Peel.

BACKGROUND

Chemical peeling with trichloroacetic acid (TCA) is a well-established modality to improve the appearance of chrono- and photodamaged skin.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a novel formulation of TCA and hydrogen peroxide for the treatment of chrono- and photodamaged skin.

METHODS

Healthy subjects (N=5, 100% female) aged 49 to 72 years and Fitzpatrick Skin Types II (n=2) and III (n=3) enrolled in the Institutional Review Board-approved study. Subjects had mild to moderate facial wrinkles. Subjects were treated with a TCA-peroxide product four times at one-week intervals and applied at-home care products daily between visits. Investigator Global Assessments (IGA), investigator tolerability assessments, and subjective tolerability assessments were conducted on all subjects at each visit. The median score at each visit was calculated and compared to baseline using the Friedman test for repeated measures.

RESULTS

Among IGA attributes, differences in median scores from baseline were significant among the four visits for tone (=0.0174), smoothness (=0.0014), texture (=0.0017), redness, ((=0.0013) and overall appearance (=0.0073), while the difference approached significance for radiance (=0.0749). Twenty percent of subjects showed immediate improvement in radiance, tone, smoothness, and texture (Visit 1, immediately after the initial treatment) while 100 percent of subjects showed improvement by Visit 3 for smoothness, texture, and redness, and the improvements persisted to the end of the study. The treatment was well-tolerated and adverse events were not observed.

CONCLUSION

The TCA-peroxide and at-home care products appear to provide rapid and consistent improvement of chrono- and photodamaged skin without adverse effects.