Five years' experience of treating port wine stains with the flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser

Abstract

During the last 5 years, 640 patients had treatment to their port wine stains (PWS) with a flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser. One hundred and fifty-six patients have been discharged for varying reasons, of which 59 (38%) achieved excellent (at least 75%) lightening of their birthmark. Of the remaining patients, those who attended the clinic for the sixth and 12th time for treatment were also assessed to determine the degree of fading achieved in the port wine stain. Our findings confirm that flashlamp-pumped dye laser treatment is safe and effective for the treatment of PWS and that complications are rare. However, the degree of fading achieved is variable and often unpredictable. Fifty-two per cent of facial lesions of different colours achieved over 75% fading as against 18% of non-facial lesions. Sixty-four per cent of those over the age of 50 years had an excellent response whereas only 19% of those below the age of 5 years were able to achieve a similar result. The colour of the port wine stain was found to be of no prognostic value. A search for an accurate and non-invasive method to predict the outcome of flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser therapy for PWS is warranted.

Laser treatment of congenital facial port‐wine stains: Long‐term efficacy and complication in Chinese patients

“…It is easily understandable that white skin young children with small vessel diameter and small initial lesion size are expected to have better treatment response. Nevertheless, Katugampola and Lanigan [14] found that 64% of those patients over the age of 50 years had an excellent response whereas only 19% of those below the age of 5 years were able to achieve a similar result. Port-wine stain generally deepens in color from light pink to red to dark purple with age.…”

Successful Treatment of Unilateral Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome With Pulsed-Dye Laser in a 2-Week Old Infant

“…15,16 Resolution of PWS, as defined by persistent blanching of the lesion, is reported in less than 10%-20% of cases. 12,[17][18][19][20] Early intervention is indicated to prevent the development of hypertrophy and nodularity, which has been shown to increase treatment resistance. 12,21 Thickened PWS lesions at older age have been associated with increased therapeutic failure.…”

A Comparison of Acquired Port-wine Stain with Congenital Port-wine Stain Using an Image Analyzer

“…The possible variables include clinical features such as lesion color, location and the age of patient and pathologic parameters such as vessel diameter, vascular area, vessel depth, vessel wall thickness, and the amount of erythrocytes in vessels. To demonstrate correlation between clinical features and therapeutic response, many investigations were done with no unanimity [10][11][12][13][14] . Histopathologic examinations of PWS have also been done to establish the relationship between pathologic parameters and therapeutic responses [7][8][9][15][16][17] .…”