Comparative Study of Cryotherapy versus Trichloroacetic Acid Chemical Peels in the Treatment of Actinic Keratosis

Actinic keratosis is cutaneous neoplasm which is including of expansion of cytologically unusual epidermal keratinocytes that grow in response to prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Since some percentage of actinic keratosis will develop to non-melanoma skin cancers, their treatment is recommended. The study aimed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of cryotherapy in comparison to topical 25% trichloroacetic acid chemical peels in the treatment of actinic keratosis. A comparative therapeutic study was conducted on forty four patients with actinic keratosis who attended Erbil dermatology teaching center in Erbil city of Kurdistan Region-Iraq. Patients were randomly allocated into two groups: cryotherapy treatment with liquid nitrogen every two weeks and trichloroacetic acid peels every two weeks and the response was controlled on follow up by taking photos. Patient’s age ranged from 40 to 80 years, they were analyzed for 24 weeks. Good response rate was seen in 72.8% of cryotherapy group and 40.9% of trichloroacetic acid group and this was statistically significant (p=0.02).  Cryotherapy was more effective than trichloroacetic acid in the treatment of actinic keratosis.