Video:How to Treat Cystic Acne

Transcript:How to Treat Cystic Acne

Hi this is Dr. Debra Jaliman, a board-certified dermatologist here in New York City and author of the book: Skin Rules- Trade Secrets From a Top New York Dermatologist here for About.com to talk about how to treat cysts in cystic acne.

Cystic Acne is Drained

So one of the things we do is we drain each cyst, we incise and drain each cyst and release the pus in each cyst. We also inject each cyst with intralesional cortisone injections. The other thing we do is we put patients on antibiotics.

Nowadays there are time-released antibiotic preparations so you don't have to use high doses of antibiotics and you can use antibiotics that time-release through the day to get rid of the infection in the skin.

Treat Cystic Acne with Medications

Another thing we use is isotretinoin. Isotretinoin is a retinoid that's very effective in cystic acne. In women we use birth control pills. There are certain birth control pills that are FDA approved to treat cystic acne. The way they work is they lower the testosterone level in patients with cystic acne, for patients who can't use birth control pills we use something called hormone blockers. The main hormone blocker that we use is something called spironolactone or also called aldactone. This is a very effective medication that we use in cystic acne.

So as you can see there are many treatment modalities available for use in cystic acne. So if you, or someone you know has cystic acne make an appointment to see a board-certified dermatologist because it is a very treatable condition. If you have any other questions about cystic acne, please go to About.com for more information.