Cystic Acne Treatment

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Cystic Acne Treatment

Thursday, August 6th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Cystic acne treatment is a type of severe acne treatment that affects the various lymph nodes all over your body. It is extremely important that this type of acne be treated by your dermatologist. A dermatologist is a physician who cares for all the different types of skin disorders. Since cystic acne is so inflammatory, it typically will not respond to the more more common treatments that are available.

Cystic acne treatment requires the use of isotretinoin (Accutane) which is a type of retinoid. This medication is taken orally one to two times per day for anywhere from 16 to 20 weeks. This medication is used to prevent oil from being produced by reducting the size of the sudiferous, or oil, glands in the body. Since oil is a major cause of acne, this overall reduction in the production of oil should help prevent this severe form of acne. By reducing the shedding of cells and helping reduce the cell stickiness in the follicles, isotretinoin prevents the development of comedones.

Advantages of Isotretinoin

Isotretinoin is a very effective medication for the treatment of cystic acne and is also effective in the prevention of extensive scarring in many patients. One stat shows that the acne may totally disappear, or get very close, in 90% of the cases where the drug was used for 16 to 20 weeks. However, in some of the patients the acne came back causing additional treatment with isotretinoin as a cystic acne treatment.

Isotretinoin Disadvantages

There are several disadvantages for patients treated with isotretinoin. A big disadvantage is that the drug is very expensive to use. Some of the severe side effects include inflammation of the lips and the mucous membranes of the eye. Other symptoms associated with it include mouth dryness, itching of the nose and skin, nose bleeds, muscle pains, and light sensitivity. Increased lipids and triglycerides, increased liver enzymes, and high blood cholesterol are some of the more serious side effects. Your physician will need to monitor your complete blood count, blood chemistry, cholesterol, triglycerides, and liver enzymes prior to starting this treatment and several times during your cystic acne treatment. Your treatment with isotretinoin should be immediately stopped when any of these symptoms occur. Most of these side effects will disappear if the medication is discontinued. If a patient suffers from any of these side effects, a doctor should be alerted and the dosage of the medication will be decreased until the side effects stop.

Tetragenic, which can cause severe birth defects in the developing fetus of a woman who is pregnant, is an additional disadvantage of using isotretinoin. If a woman is of childbearing age and plans to become pregnant, isotretinoin should be avoided at all costs. Women should also use an appropriate birth control method for a one-month prior to taking this drug, during the entire treatment with this drug, and for one full month after the therapy stops. A doctor needs to be consulted in order to determine what is a safe period to get pregnant once the treatment is over.