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To the Editor: I found the negative results of the study by Dr Orringer et al¹ on the treatment of acne vulgaris with pulsed dye laser surprising because they are quite different from the positive ones I recently published with colleagues.² Several methodological concerns may explain the differences.

First, their study was small, with only 40 patients and only 26 patients completing the study. This was not a problem we experienced in our own trial. Second, because their analysis was performed on an intent-to-treat basis, the spot count and grading at the last visit attended by the patient were taken as the final results. This means that a significant percentage of patients who had failed to attend follow-up appointments may have been deemed treatment failures.

Third, the average number of laser pulses used to treat each patient was 385. In our study,² the entire face was treated, taking at least . . . [Full Text of this Article]

A. C. Chu, FRCP
a.chu@imperial.ac.uk
Imperial College
Hammersmith Campus
London, England

RELATED ARTICLE

Pulsed Dye Laser Treatment of Acne Vulgaris—Reply
Jeffrey S. Orringer, Sewon Kang, Timothy M. Johnson, Gary J. Fisher, and John J. Voorhees
JAMA. 2004;292(12):1430.
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