What is the flashlamp pulsed dye vascular lesion laser used to treat?

The pulsed dye lasers may be the most effective lasers in treating the thin, lightly colored port wine stains, especially those in children. These lesions have been treated without scarring in children as young as 1 week of age. Increasing the wavelength to 595 nm theoretically allows the treatment of many port wine stains that were resistant to treatment with the shorter wavelengths. Pulsed dye laser treatment is effective for facial telangiectasias, cherry angiomas, childhood hemangiomas, poikiloderma of Civatte (a mottled vascular condition on the necks of adults), warts, scars, and possibly stretch marks. Leg veins less than 1 mm in diameter are also effectively treated with pulsed dye lasers using 595- to 600-nm light and a pulse duration of up to 20 msec. One of the newer pulsed dye lasers even has a handpiece to treat pigmented lesions. This is a compression handpiece designed to physically compress out the blood, thereby removing one of the competing chromophores of this wavelength. This leaves the laser energy able to treat the remaining melanin targets.

Fitzpatrick RE, Lowe NJ, Goldman MP, et al: Flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser treatment of port-wine stains, J Dermatol Surg Oncol 20:743–748, 1994.

Hsia J, Lowery JA, Zelickson B: Treatment of leg telangiectasia using a long-pulse dye laser at 595 nm, Lasers Surg Med 20:1–5, 1997.