Pathogenesis and treatments of photoaging: review of the literature, and case reports.

Ageing is an inevitable process. Among all factors, photoageing has the most prominent effect. It is an actual problem nowadays since many people are affected by photoageing and there is increasing number of skin cancers. It is well known that chronic photodamage by sunlight may trigger photocarcinogenesis and results in skin tumors.
The mechanisms of UV-induced skin ageing are UV light-associated or oxidative stress-provoked. The photoageing processes reflect on the skin quickly with certain features, therefore can be recognized before they evolved into skin cancer.
Many methods for preventing photoaging had been practiced. Most of them directly block the effects of UV-light. The easiest method is to reduce exposure under the sunlight such as applying sunscreen. There are also many field-directed and lesion-directed treatments could be used after the skin is damaged.
The aim of this study is to overview the literature on epidemiology, pathophysiology, prevention and treatment of photoageing, and presentation of clinical cases. Through the clinical cases, three different methods of the treatment of photoageing skin symptomes are demonstrated.
During my study for this subject, I collected and read the actual literature about photoaging, and discussed it with my tutor. I used the pubmed, wikipedia and textbooks as references. The patients are treated in the Department of Dermatology, University of Debrecen. I analysed the patient’s history with the help of my tutor and participated in the treatments. The methods of the treatments include laser treatment, cryotherapy and photodynamic treatment.
Finally I compared the advantages and disadvantages of different methods. Compare with the data from literature, our results showed that all three demonstrated methods are effective for treatmenting photoageing skin. Generally, cryotreatment is one of the most common and simple methods, but it is painful and has unwanted hyperpigmentation side effect. We can see better cosmetic results after laser and photodynamic treatment, but the laser treatment is much more expensive, and the photodynamic treatment evokes inflammation, usually painful and takes longer time.