A Three‐Year Experience with the Argon Laser in Dermatotherapy

Abstract

Since January 1980, 477 patients were treated with an argon laser, 337 afflicted with vascular lesions and 140 with nonvascular lesions. Laser therapy of portwine stains gave good results in 70% of the adult patients, but it was disappointing in patients younger than 18 years of age. Other vascular lesions, such as telangiectasia, venous lake, angiofibroma, lymphangioma, and cherry angioma, were also treated with success. For the removal of tattoos the argon laser is not an optimal modality. In our experience it should only be used in skin areas, where dermabrasion cannot be performed. Therapy of epidermal nevi, xanthelasma of the eyelids, verrucae, vulgares , and sebaceous gland hyperplasia gave preliminary promising results in some patients.

Xanthelasma palpebrarum: Treatment with the erbium:YAG laser

“…The argon laser light only penetrates to a depth of about 1 mm and is not selectively absorbed by the xanthelasma tissue as the target structure. A high recurrence rate and frequent scarring have eliminated the argon laser as a therapeutic option for xanthelasmas [10,11]. Likewise dye lasers are limited by an insuf®cient penetration depth [12,13].…”

“…In the early days of laser treatment, argon or pulsed dye lasers were also used [10,11]. More recently ablative lasers such as CO 2 lasers have been employed in the cutting mode [14], in the continous mode [15±17], or in the pulsed mode [18,19] with modest results.…”

Angioma Serpiginosum with Extensive Lesions Associated with Retinal Vein Occlusion

“…In the current concept, laser application is considered to be the best option for vascular lesions [16] . In fact, pulsed dye laser or argon laser can produce considerable positive cosmetic results in the treatment of angioma serpiginosum [17][18][19] . However, the pulsed dye laser treatment regimen was not successful in our patient.…”

Continuous Wave Potassium Titanyl Phosphate Laser Treatment is Safe and Effective for Xanthelasma Palpebrarum

“…This is an observation that has been consistently described in the literature after treatment with all effective therapies for XP. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Xanthelasma palpebrarum is a problem that is known for its recurrences after treatment. Also in their series of patients, 13/30 patients returned for additional treatment after a prolonged period.…”