Effective Treatment of Leg Vein Telangiectasia with a New 940 nm Diode Laser

Abstract

background. A variety of lasers have been used in an attempt to treat leg vein telangiectasia objective. To evaluate the feasibility of a new 940 nm diode laser for the treatment of leg vein telangiectasia. methods. Thirty-one patients with leg vein telangiectasia were treated with a diode laser; 26 of these with 940 nm, 300-350 J/cm 2 , 40-70 msec, 1.0 mm handpiece, one pass, and 5 of these with 940 nm, 815 J/cm 2 , 50 msec, 0.5 mm handpiece, one pass. Each subject had three treatments of the same site at 4-week intervals. Photographs taken before and 4 weeks after the last treatment were evaluated by two independent observers for vessel clearance.results. In those 26 patients treated with a fluence of 300-350 J/cm 2 , a vessel clearance of greater than 50% was achieved in 20 patients (76%), 12 of these patients had clearance rates greater than 75%. A clearance rate of less than 50% was obtained in six patients, with three of these patients showing responses of less than 25%. In five patients treated with a fluence of 815 J/cm 2 a clearance rate of more than 75% was observed. conclusions. In this preliminary study a 940 nm diode laser was shown to be safe and effective for the treatment of leg vein telangiectasia.P. Kaudewitz, MD, W. Klövekorn, MD, and W. Rother, PhD have indicated no significant interest with commercial supporters.

Treatment of Leg Vein Telangiectases: 1-Year Results With a New 940 nm Diode Laser

“…The design of the study, the patients' characteristics, and the laser parameters used have been described previously. 5 In brief, 20 female patients were available for the present longterm follow-up study. They all had leg vein telangiectases on various locations on their calves and shins with a vessel diameter of less than 1 mm.…”

“…3,4 A new 940 nm diode laser designed according to this rationale has been reported as effective and safe for the treatment of leg vein telangiectasia. 5 These reports are based on shortterm clinical assessments performed 4 weeks after the last of three treatment sessions. Clinical experience with sclerotherapy of leg vein telangiectasia suggests that longer follow-up periods are needed to fully assess the definite clinical end results in terms of vessel clearance.…”

Treatment effects of combined radio-frequency current and a 900 nm diode laser on leg blood vessels

“…Although lasers and light sources in the near infrared waveband can penetrate deeper into tissue, concomitant with longer wavelengths, the pigment in hemoglobin becomes less of a powerful photoacceptor, being replaced by proteinaceous and other molecular targets and, after around 900 nm, water. Diode-based laser systems have lately been reported in the treatment of leg veins because of their ease of generating true continuous pulses of longer duration compared with flashlamppumped systems such as the Nd:YAG and pulsed dye lasers in which the ''long pulsed'' versions consist of a train of micropulses due to the difficulty in obtaining a continuous long pulse from flashlamp pumping, thus offering greater efficacy with less in the way of side effects [1][2][3][4][5].…”

Laser Treatment for Spider Veins

“…• Another study demonstrated over 75 % clearance after 4 weeks of treatment in 12 out of 26 patients using a 940 nm diode laser [ 35 ].…”