Tranexamic acid in melasma: a review

Abstract

Tranexamic acid (TA), an anti-fibrinolytic agent, originally used for treating blood loss during surgery and various medical conditions, has been found to show promising results in melasma. TA has been tried as oral therapy, topical formulations and even intradermally, with or without adjuvants by various researchers in melasma but still there is no consensus on the optimum route, dose and timing of the treatment. A systematic literature search of the PubMed electronic database was performed using the keywords ‘melasma’, ‘chloasma’ and ‘tranexamic acid’ in the title. The abstracts of the articles were screened and reviewed for relevance. The selected articles were read in detail for inclusion and also the relevant references were traced. This review is an attempt to evaluate the role of TA by various routes in melasma and offer suggestions for future directions of research.

Keywords

• chloasma
• melasma
• tranexamic acid