Actinic Keratosis

It is important to have your skin checked annually by a Dermatologist. Skin conditions like actinic keratosis (AK), also known as solar keratosis are relatively common effects from sun and UV radiation exposure. An actinic keratosis is a crusty, dry, and scaly growth that commonly occurs on the face, lips, ears, bald scalp, shoulders, neck and back of the hands and forearms. Early treatment can reduce almost all actinic keratosis (AKs) before they become skin cancer.

Riverside Medical Arts offers a red light photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatment for AKs. It is called the BF-RhodoLED® for Red Light PDT. This treatment has been FDA-approved for the lesion-directed and field-directed treatment of actinic keratoses of mild-to-moderate severity on the face and scalp.

Some patients experience mild to severe pain during treatment. After treatment, you may experience some mild inflammation. Patients should be advised not to remove any crusts and to let the healing process take its course. AK lesions must be re-treated if they have not been cleared completely after 3 months.