Rosacea lessens patients' quality of life not only by visible symptoms like
erythema, papules, and pustules but also by invisible symptoms like stinging, burning, and dryness.
Ivermectin 1% cream has recently been introduced as an efficient
therapy for papules and pustules in
rosacea patients. To investigate the potential of
ivermectin 1% cream to improve
rosacea-associated
erythema and invisible symptoms by combining established questionnaires with the novel photography and analysis tool Scarletred®Vision. We performed an open monocentric pilot study including 25 Caucasian patients presenting with moderate to severe
rosacea with
erythema, less than 10 papules and/or pustules, and ≥ 15 Demodex mites/cm2 . Patients applied 1 g of
ivermectin 1% cream (Soolantra®) once a day for ≥16 weeks. Skin symptoms were recorded at baseline, week 8 and ≥ week 16. Grade of
erythema was determined by clinician
erythema assessment (CEA) and patient self-assessment (PSA). Severity of invisible skin symptoms (stinging and/or burning, dryness,
itching) were assessed by questionnaire.
Erythema and skin texture were additionally quantified using Scarletred®Vision.
Ivermectin 1% cream significantly reduced invisible symptoms of
rosacea (stinging and/or burning, dryness: p < 0.0001;
itching p < 0.001; at ≥16 weeks). Analysis with Scarletred®Vision confirmed CEA and PSA results for improvement of
erythema (p < 0.0001; at ≥16 weeks) and skin roughness (p < 0.001; at ≥16 weeks). Treatment with
ivermectin 1% cream is efficient in treating not only
rosacea-associated papules and pustules but also
erythema and invisible skin symptoms.