Efficacy of oral isotretinoin in the treatment of acne vulgaris

Background: Acne vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory disease of pilosebaceous units. Objective: To assess the presentation of acne vulgaris and to evaluate the efficacy of oral isotretinoin therapy, Materials and method: This was a retrospective chart review of patients presenting to the dermatology private clinic in Almansoora, Aden, over a 2-year period, who complained of acne vulgaris and were treated with oral isotretinoin. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 17. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The total study patients were 86 (68.6% females and 31.4% males). The mean age of patients was 25.6 +/- 7.9 years. The difference between means related to sex shows statistically significant (p = 0.006). The patients of the age group >= 20 years were predominant with (70.9%). The most common side effects were cheilitis (54.7%) followed by dry-skin (12.8%), acne flaring (9.3%), hair loss (7.0%) and the lowest side effect was increased liver enzyme in (1.2%) patients. Papulonodular of acne vulgaris is the most common severity type (36.1%) followed by comedones, papules, pustules (32.5%). Comedones, papules, pustules are more common in the age group < 20 years of age (24.4%) while papulonodular are more common in the age group >= 20 years with (33.7%). The difference between values of severity types of acne vulgaris related to age groups is statistically highly significant (p = 0.000). Complete clearance occurred in (80.2%) patients followed by partial clearance. Partial clearance was found in (16.3%) patients, most of them treated within 16 weeks (12.8%). The difference between values of therapy response of patients in relation to therapy duration is statistically highly significant (p = 0.000). Conclusion: The results of our study show that isotretinoin is a safe and effective therapy for acne vulgaris with few side effects.