Treatment of Cutaneous Vascular Lesions by the Flashlamp Pulsed Tunable Dye Laser ( SPTL - 1 )

Lee, Seok June; Lee, In Joon; Im, Sung Bin; Park, Yoon Kee

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent ad vances and innovation in laser technology encourages us to learn and use it experimentally and clinically. The pulsed dye laser(Candela SPTL-1) is a flashlamp excited dye laser, using the princ ples of selective photothermolysis that targets the abnormal microvascu lature of cutaneous lesions while sparing adjacent structures including the epidermis. The laseemits a 585nm wavelength, and has a pulse duration of 450 usec. It is now being widely used in the treatment of vascular diseases in the dermatology field.
OBJECTIVE
& METHOD : Buring the period of about 3 years from August 1994 to March 1992, at the out patient clinin of Department of Dermatology of Yonsei University. 252 patients who were treated with SPTL was analyzed to evaluate the clinical effects of the pulsed dye laser. Patient di@st.ributition f the cutaneous vascular lesions included 1fil pat.ients with nevui flammeus, 68 with telangcetasia, 15 with spider angima, 5 with strawberry hemangiona and 2 with cavernous hemangior ia.
RESULTS
The results and summarized as follows : 1. Nevus flammeus 4b.7% of early childhood, 41.5% of late childhood and 47.3% of adults showed excellent or good results. 2. Telangiectasia 78.1% of patients she wed excellent or good results. 3. Spider angioma 66.7% of patients she wed excellent or good results. 4. Strawberry hemangioma and cavernous hemangioma Most, of the patients,howed fair or poor results. 5. Complications included hyperpigmentation(26.5%), hypopigmentation(1.6%) and atrophic scar(4.5% ).
CONCLUSION
Our experince with pulsed dye laser during the last 3 years revealed that it was superior in treating vascular disease than other existing lasers.