Photodynamic therapy combined with carbon dioxide laser pretreatment for treatment of perifolliculitis capitis abscedens et suffodiens: a case report.

Perifolliculitis capitis abscedens et suffodiens (PCAS) is a refractory and recrudescent chronic inflammatory dermatosis of the scalp, which seriously affects the appearance and quality of life of patients. The treatment of PCAS is challenging, often leading to frustrating outcome. In this paper, we report a case of PCAS who received 20% 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) combined with carbon dioxide (CO2) laser pretreatment. The skin lesions of this case showed complete clearance after 2 month, and there was no recurrence after 1 year of follow-up. To our knowledge, we presented the first successful regimen of ALA-PDT combined with CO2 laser therapy for PCAS.