The study is designed to compare the additive efficacy of fractional CO2 laser with topical tranexamic acid gel in the treatment of melasma.
The study is a randomized, single-blin, unicenter, clinical trial.
Inclusion criteria include patients with epidermal and mixed melasma and diseased for at least 6 months.
Exclusion criteria include dermal type melasma, oral contraceptive pill consumption since 3 months before enrolement in the study, topical or oral corticosteroid consumption, other pigmentation disorders,history of endocrinopaty disorders, pregnancy, lactation, topical depigmenting medication application in the recent 1 month, oral retinoids or oral and injectable tranexamic acid consumption in the recent 6 months.
The patients are selected by convenient sampling from tinea versicolor patients referred to dermatology clinic of Faghihi hospital in Shiraz and 25 patients are enrolled in the study. The patients receive two treatments in both sides of their face by block randomization.
In the intervention side which is determined by block randomization, once monthly fractional CO2 laser is done besides twice daily topical application of tranexamic acid gel and in the control side, only topical tranexamic acid gel is applied twice daily.
Primary outcome measure is melanin content measured by Dermacatch instrument and secondary outcome measures are modified Melasma Area and Severity Index (mMASI), investigator global scale and patient global scale.