Application of laser-assisted transdermal drug delivery in dermatology

Abstract

Lasers have been widely applied to the clinical setting due to high precision, high controllability and technological maturity. When assisting transdermal drug delivery, lasers can change the skin barrier to increase the amount of drugs permeated and depth of permeation of drugs. Ablative fractional lasers are the first choice for assisting transdermal drug delivery because of small damage, few adverse reactions and definite potential to increase permeability. The effect on transdermal drug delivery is mainly affected by wavelength range and energy density of fractional lasers as well as incubation time and relative molecular mass of drugs. In the dermatology clinic, ablative fractional laser-assisted transdermal drug delivery can improve the therapeutic effect on skin basal cell carcinoma, actinic keratosis and hyperplastic scar, and allow the reduction of methotrexate dosage in treating psoriasis. Both animal experiments and clinical trials have proved the feasibility to treat dermatoses using laser-assisted transdermal drug delivery. Key words: Lasers; Physicochemical phenomena; Osmosis; Neoplasms, basal cell; Keratosis, actinic; Cicatrix; Transdermal drug delivery