Efficacy and Safety of Fractional Carbon Dioxide Laser for Treatment of Facial Freckles

Freckles are clusters of melanin in the superficial epidermis. They affect mostly face and sun exposed areas, and appear as flat brown or red macules that fade in winter, usually in a fair complexion patient, but may be present in other skin types.

The gold standard in the industry for non-surgical facial rejuvenation, removal of wrinkles, pigmentation, and general sun damage has been the carbon dioxide (CO2) laser since the mid 1990s. The traditional CO2 laser was very effective, however it fell out of favor because it required general anesthesia. It also had a prolonged recovery time. Over the last several years, advances in technology known as fractional resurfacing has made the CO2 laser popular again: Fractional CO2 laser treatment is one of the newest laser rejuvenation technology. It proved successful in treatment of melasma, one of the pigmented dermatoses. To the best of our knowledge, based on a thorough search of literature, no clinical studies assessing fractional CO2 laser in treatment of freckles could be retrieved.