Does Double-Pass Pulsed-Dye Laser With Long and Short Pulse Duration Increase Treatment Efficacy of Port-Wine Stain? A Randomized Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND

Although pulsed-dye laser (PDL) 595 nm is known as the gold standard for treatment of port-wine stains (PWS), complete clearance of lesions occurs in a minority of cases.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the efficacy and safety of double-pass pulsed-dye laser (DPL), long pulse duration (20 m/s) followed by short pulse duration (1.5 m/s) within 20 minutes interval, with single-pass pulsed-dye laser (SPL) for (1.5 m/s) in the treatment of PWS.

METHODS

Twenty-four patients with PWS underwent 3 sessions of PDL. Each lesion was randomly divided into 2 portions to receive DPL or SPL. Colorimetric and dermoscopic evaluations were used to determine the response objectively. In addition, improvement was scored subjectively using the visual analog scale (VAS).

RESULTS

According to colorimetric analysis, the mean blanching rates for DPL and SPL treated sites were 48% (SD = 0.215) and 37% (SD = 0.213), respectively (p = .001). With VAS, 3.79 (SD = 0.93) and 3.33 (SD = 0.91) improvement scores were reported in the DPL and SPL treated areas, respectively (p = .008). Dermoscopic images showed that larger deep vessels were the most common remnant vessels in both treatment areas.

CONCLUSION

Compared with SPL, DPL with 20 minutes interval seems to be a more effective and safe method for the treatment of PWS.