Abstract
In recent years, options of drugs for the treatment of acne vulgaris, particularly those of topical drugs, have increased in Japan to levels similar to those in Europe and America. Treatment guidelines that describe their selection and use have also been established. In clinical practice, however, appropriate drugs for individual patients with different symptoms cannot be chosen automatically by following the guidelines’ recommendations; sometimes a continuing process of trial and error taking various characteristics of patients into account is necessary. In this consensus meeting, five dermatologists who are expert at acne treatment drafted plans on the selection of drugs to treat selected patients, representative of common patients with acne vulgaris that physicians often see in routine clinical practice, based on the patients’ photographs, age, lifestyle, economic status, etc. Then, 27 dermatologists actively involved in acne treatment discussed the plans, and consensus was achieved. Here we report the results of the discussion for a total of 13 cases, including facial acne vulgaris (6 cases) from 3 different age groups; truncal acne vulgaris (2 cases); and special cases of mandibular acne (1 case), acne with atopic dermatitis (2 cases), post-inflammatory erythema caused by acne (1 case), and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation caused by acne (1 case), to aid in their treatment.
