Table 1.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Inclusion	Exclusion
patients older than 18 years with existing facial melasma	vulnerable people and minors
male and female patients with Fitzpatrick skin types IV–VI	Fitzpatrick skin types I–III
black Africans, Indians and mixed ancestry people	lighter skin types
all types of melasma: epidermal, dermal or mixed facial melasma	other hypermelanosis skin disorders