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According to some courts, an expert witness in certaincircumstances would not need to be a specialist, and could even beconsidered an expert based on study rather than actual experience.

The YAG laser can be used safely as long as it is not used withinone centimeter of the orbital rim where there would be a risk oflight being transmitted to the eye.

National report - For treating the lips and lower face,experts tell Dermatology Times that options including fillers,botulinum toxin injections and newer resurfacing technologies candeliver excellent cosmetic results usually with little or nodowntime.

San Francisco - Developed in France more than 50 years ago,mesotherapy has been slow to gain widespread acceptance in theUnited States.

National report - While soft-tissue fillers offer the uniquebenefit of providing fast correction for busy patients who don'twant to have the down-time for a face-lift, bruising can throw amonkey wrench into the best-laid plans for stellar patientsatisfaction.

Las Vegas - The calcium hydroxylapatite filler Radiesse(Bioform) has its share of caveats, but the filler generally offersgood correction that lasts for a year or more, with side effectsunlikely, according to Alastair Carruthers, M.D., speaking at theAnnual Meeting of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology andAesthetic Surgery.

Poly-L-lactic acid is also being used by some physicians off-labelas a volume restorer for cosmetic enhancement in non-HIV patients.

St. Louis - A surge of new dermatologic therapies hasrecently burst upon the scene, providing a variety of options fortreating skin diseases, especially in psoriasis.

Anaheim, Calif. - More than 30 years after the term apoptosiswas coined, researchers are just beginning to understand the roleof caspases in this process, despite a flurry of recent research.

New York - Treating pediatric atopic dermatitis (AD)effectively can involve both newer treatments, such as calcineurininhibitors and TNF agonists, as well as new twists on existingtreatments, according to Lisa A. Beck, M.D.

London - Intravaginal microbicides currently represent themost promising strategy for allowing women to protect themselvesagainst HIV transmission, according to Jonathan F. Weber, M.D., whospoke at the Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Dermatologyand Venereology.

Not only was there little to no correlation between drug resistanceand clinical response, but the rates of good responses were higherin the resistant patients than in those with non-resistant P. acnesfor four of the five antibiotics (75 percent to 100 percent vs. 65percent to 85 percent).

San Francisco - Interim results of a phase 2,vehicle-controlled, bilateral study evaluating the efficacy andsafety of broad area topical 5-aminolevulenic acid (ALA, LevulanKerastick, DUSA Pharmaceuticals) photodynamic therapy (PDT) withvarious light sources show that ALA plus blue light (BLU-U, DUSAPharmaceuticals) was significantly more effective than vehicle plusblue light in improving facial photodamage, but the statisticalanalyses did not find ALA pretreatment enhanced the benefitsachieved using an intense pulsed light source (IPL; Quantum,Lumenis) or a pulsed dye laser (PDL; VStar, Cynosure), said RobertA. Weiss, M.D., associate professor of dermatology, Johns HopkinsUniversity School of Medicine, Baltimore, and an investigator inthe phase 2 trial.

Future research will move in two directions: The timing and numberof electroporation treatments and experimentation with additionalgenes.

San Francisco - Faced with a jungle of potential conflicts ofinterest in their various roles as providers, educators, students,advisers, committee members and investigators, physicians mightconsider their answers to a few pragmatic questions in judging theethics of their conduct, according to David M. Pariser, M.D.,speaking at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Academy ofDermatology (AAD), here.

What is your take on antibiotic resistance? How do you respond to statements that dermatologists have used antibiotics too indiscriminately, compounding resistance problems? Are we, as a specialty, doing something bad for medicine?

National report - While Internet use is expanding across theboard, dermatologists in private practice appear to rely moreheavily on the Internet than do their academic counterparts,according to a recent study.

The use of drugs and devices for conditions that are not otherwiseindicated is widespread among physicians and is generally notconsidered experimental or investigational.

Berlin -- According to a study reported in the March issue of the Archives of Dermatology, while three central injection sites are essential for the treatment of glabellar wrinkles with botulinum toxin A, the use of two additional injection sites targeting the frontalis muscle did not improve efficacy.

Padua , Italy -- Researchers at the University of Padua report that injections of a synthetic polymer may be helpful in treating some HIV patients' facial wasting associated with combination antiretroviral therapy.

Stanford, Calif. -- A Stanford University School of Medicine study has found that rheumatoid arthritis sufferers have a high risk of developing non-melanoma skin cancers, and that those being treated with TNF inhibitors together with methotrexate or prednisone are even more likely to develop skin cancer compared with osteoarthritis suffers.

Cleveland ? "What if there were no topical corticosteroids? Or if a patient were unable to use them?"

Atlanta -- "Community-acquired MRSA is just exploding among the urban patient population we serve," says Henry Michael Blumberg, M.D., an epidemiologist and director of the division of infectious disease at Emory University School of Medicine.

San Francisco ? The willingness of dermatologists to take a more active role in positions of influence and decision will ultimately determine whether the specialty and its reputation are safeguarded for the future, according to Clay J. Cockerell, M.D., speaking at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) in March.

National report ? While topical calcineurin inhibitors for treating atopic dermatitis (AD) continue to grab headlines, sources tell Dermatology Times that research into additional treatments for pediatric skin problems is progressing.

Q. What is Sepilift? Does it induce a skin tightening reaction as advertised?

National report ? Facelifts may give a person a renewed youthful appearance, but they can also have an unpleasant side effect ? the development of noticeable, large, blue veins. Temple veins, especially, tend to become more prominent after facelift procedures.

The key to effective, natural-looking hair transplantation is to study the natural patterns of the hair.

While the biggest successes in terms of research and efficacy have been seen with vitamin A, other vitamins also offer varying degrees of benefits, but documentation of such benefits in topical uses still leaves much to be desired.

In addition to efforts on the collagen front is another movement to develop peptides to mimic the activities of botulinium toxin in the neuro-muscular junction.