Abstract:

Acne is one of the commonest skin disorders. During Adolescence 70% to 80% of the population have some clinically evident acne(1. This is commonly seen as the oily face, obstructive horny plugs or inflammatory lesions like pustules. These may complicate into cysts, abscesses, scars, keloids, hyperpigmentation and above all psychological damage to self-confidence. The striking feature of acne is greasy skin and severity of acne is directly proportional to sebum excretion rate SER(2). Raised SER is often due to hypersensitive end-organs i.e. Sebaceous glands (SG), mostly at normal levels of circulating androgens(3). SG is larger and more permeable in acne skin(4).

Chemabrasion may be introduced as a surgical procedure with a new idea where microdermabrasion (MD) is combined with chemical peeling to achieve permanent partial destruction or shrinkage of target organs i.e. SG. This results in a decreased number and size of SG.

The MD produces controlled removal of superficial skin layers in successive sessions and the chemical peeler absorbed through abraded opened follicles selectively causes partial destruction of SG. This can be proved by measuring the SER before and after treatment(11). So investigations of SER are very important for understanding the physiology of SG, the pathogenesis of acne and the efficacy of this treatment ‘chemabrasion sheikhing’.