Laser therapy. Basic concepts and nomenclature.

Laser therapy has been demonstrated to be effective in treating many types of cutaneous vascular and pigmented lesions. Clinical and investigative studies on lasers are being published with increasing frequency, but is difficult to interpret and compare results because of lack of use of appropriate nomenclature regarding laser energy. We suggest that scientific communication in this expanding field will be improved if all future studies state: (1) irradiance (laser flux density) at the irradiated surface in watts/cm2, (2) laser beam cross-sectional area and shape at the irradiated surface, (3) laser pulse duration or exposure time in seconds, (4) pulse repetition rate (pulsed lasers) in pulses per second, (5) treatment time segments and intervals between treatment times, (6) total treated skin area in cm2, (7) total number of applied laser pulses or exposures, and (8) the type of laser used and its spectral distribution.