Laser Treatments for Vascular Birthmarks

Vascular birthmarks are stains on your skin that become visible at birth or shortly afterwards. Sometimes they are minute and remain unobserved, but sometimes they can be conspicuous and large. In the latter a child may feel uncomfortable with his/her appearance and often low self-esteemed. Vascular birthmarks are made up of blood vessels squashed up together in the skin. They can be flat or raised, pink, red or even bluish in color. It is observed as a quite common mark About 3 in every 100 babies. The vascular birthmarks are most commonly found in the form of macular (flat) stains, hemangiomas, and port wine stains. It may differ in size from a minute dot to occasionally involving a whole limb, and they grow in amount to the child's general growth. There are two common deformed birth marks-the salmon patch (naevus simplex) and port wine stain (naevus flammeus).

Laser treatment is more common applications for the treatment of vascular birthmarks and the choice treatment for port-wine stains (PWS) and superficial capillary hemangiomas. Before the invention of laser technology, these marks were treated with radiation, surgical removal and grafting, cryosurgery, and camouflage with cosmetics or tattoos. These techniques did not produce satisfactory results and formed poor aesthetic outcomes. The innovation of the pulsed dye laser in the 1980s allowed selective photocoagulation and annihilation of lesional blood vessels without making any harm to the surrounding normal skin, thereby producing dramatic clearing of PWS and hemangiomas with minimal risk of scarring.

There are different types of lasers which are performed for the surgery and the most commonly used lasers for vascular malformations are the pulsedye laser, the ND: YAG laser, the CO² (carbon dioxide), argon laser, and Diode laser. Each laser works differently. General anesthesia and many of the newer lasers cooling agent incorporated to reduce pain and discomfort. There are also numbing creams available to help manage pain and discomfort associated with laser treatment. Procedure may take 1-2 hors. It is advised to avoid contact to sunlight, and the taking of aspirin prior to receiving laser treatment. After the completion of laser procedure the skin takes form in dark purple, and improves after 7-10 days. Patient may experience of complete healing after 6 weeks, during which avoid rubbing the place of surgery.