Preliminary results following treatment of vascular lesions of the skin using a continuous wave tunable dye laser which emits at 577 nm.

Abstract

Summary A continuous wave tunable dye laser which emits orange light at 577 nm was used to treat a wide variety of vascular lesions of the skin. Most superficial vascular lesions responded well, and in particular the effect of treatment on the purple, mature port wine stain was impressive. The pink, easily compressible port wine stain responded less well. The incidence of frank scarring using the tunable dye laser is low and overall is less than 4%. This figure is much less than even the most conservative estimates which use either the neodymium-YAG, carbon dioxide or argon lasers. Pigmentary change following tunable dye laser therapy is also unusual.