Abstract

Background: Onychomycosis is the most common disease of the nails. The traditional treatment of onychomycosis requires long term medication of antifungal agent that is associated with drug interaction, so many patients had been limited its use.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the treatment of onychomycosis with 1,064 nm long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser.

Methods: Between April 2012 and March 2013, we selected 18 nails (14 toenails, 4 fingernails) and treat over three to eight sessions every 4 weeks.

Results: For all 10 patients with 18 affected nails, 88.9% mycological (culture) clearance was observed after sixth sessions. At their final follow-up visit, 9 of 18 nails had more than 50% efficacy and the others had 30~50% clinical improvement. The overall average improvement rate was 55.5%.

Conclusion: The results demonstrates that a 1,064 nm long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser may represent a safe and viable option for the treatment of onychomycosis. The optimal regimen for each patient needs to be determined.

Keywords

1064 nm long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser Onychomycosis

KJMM 2013 June;18(2):48-55(8). Epub 2016 February 17
Copyright © 2013 by Korean Journal of Medical Mycology

Language

Korean/English

Author

Yu Na Lee; Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Yang Won Lee; Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Yong Beom Choe; Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Kyu Joong Ahn; Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding

Kyu Joong Ahn, Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. Tel: +82-2-2030-5181, Fax: +82-2-2030-5179, e-mail: kjahn@kuh.ac.kr

Publication history

Received 13 June 2013; Revised 4 July 2013; Accepted 5 July 2013.

Acknowledgements

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Yu Na Lee

Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Yang Won Lee

Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Yong Beom Choe

Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Kyu Joong Ahn

Department of Dermatology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Since epub date 2016 February 17