Best Acne Treatments

Determine the severity of acne is essential to indicate the most effective treatment in each case. Now a group of Spanish dermatologists just introduced a new scale ‘fast and easy “that facilitates diagnosis of the exact degree of the disease. It has done under the framework of the XXI Meeting of the Spanish Group of Cosmetic Dermatology and Therapeutics, held this weekend in Logroño.

So far, “we had a scale of severity of acne Spanish. We had a British (CERCLA scale) that was very complex to use. It consisted of comparing the patient with an excessive number of images to define the severity. Precisely because it is so cumbersome, it is only used in research, not in the office daily, “explains Aurora elmundo.es War, a dermatologist at Hospital 12 de Octubre (Madrid) and one of the architects of the new alternative.

Ultimately, the diagnosis was reduced to three states: mild, moderate or severe. With this simplification, the specialist said, “the assessment was less accurate and, depending on the dermatologist, indicating either treatment. Keep in mind that this disease affects over 85% of adolescents and 50% of cases persist into adulthood. Also, is 25% of visits to the dermatologist, so it is important to have a handy tool.

With the new scale (EGAE), the specialist would only have to take account of four photographs of the face, chest and three in the other three back. “Thus, the diagnosis is made quickly. The method is more feasible and reliable because it discriminates different degrees in no time. Evaluate the improvement also allows a quantification (eg, within two months, the acne may go al of degree four two) “, points out Dr. Guerra.

“In some countries, the spectrum of severity of acne can vary, so the creation of the Spanish-scale attempt to adapt the actual spectrum of our country, reducing the number of categories for other international scales, such as the UK ( CERCLA), “said Julian Conejo-Mir, another of those responsible for the new scale and a dermatologist at the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio (Sevilla).

Useful Tools

This new tool is the result of a study by a team of specialists in dermatology, including the president of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (AEDV), Julián Conejo-Mir, and published in the journal Proceedings Dermosifilográficas‘.

In that paper, they compared the validity of this new tool with the British scale. Based on the results, Luis Puig-Sanz, a dermatologist at the Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, concludes that “both tools are useful in assessing the severity of acne in Spain. However, the use of the latter represents saving time and less difficulty in the evaluation of acne and its response to treatment. ”

The aim of the new scale is to provide professionals an easy tool to help them in daily work, building a reference scale in Spain and facilitate treatment decisions in clinical practice and research.

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