Comparative Study between Mesotherapy and Topical 5% Minoxidil by Dermoscopic Evaluation for Androgenic Alopecia in Male: A Randomized Controlled Trial

AIM: This study aims to compare efficacy and safety between mesotherapy (intralesional injection) and 5% topical minoxidil solution in male androgenic alopecia (AGA) by dermoscopic evaluation. METHODOLOGY: In a randomized active controlled trial, we enrolled 49 clinically diagnosed males of AGA and randomly allotted them into two groups – mesotherapy (A) (25) and minoxidil (B) (24). Males in Group A were given total 8 sessions of intralesional mesosolution with microneedling procedure while Group B males were prescribed topical solution of minoxidil 5% twice daily for 4 months. Results were evaluated at baseline and then monthly for 4 months with clinical photographs, dermoscopy, trichoscan, 7-point standard assessment tool, and patient-self assessment scores. RESULTS: Grade II was the most common presentation in our study. All dermoscopic parameters such as variation of hair shaft diameter, follicular units with single and multiple hairs, yellow dots, and perifollicular halo did not show any significant difference between the groups at all time points except at 1(st) month where the difference in variation of hair shaft diameter between the two group was 0.04. We observed a significant increase (P = 0.01) in the variation of hair shaft diameter between pre- and post-treatment in mesotherapy group compared to minoxidil group. The rest of parameters failed to show any significant difference within the group in mesotherapy and minoxidil. CONCLUSION: In our study, we observed a significant increase in the variation of hair shaft diameter between pre- and post-treatment in Group A compared to B. Other dermoscopic, trichoscan, and subjective measurement tool failed to show significant difference between two groups. Our observation suggests that there is no significant improvement of mesotherapy in male AGA over minoxidil.