DOES THE PULSED TUNABLE DYE-LASER HAVE A ROLE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF INFANTILE HEMANGIOMAS - OBSERVATIONS BASED ON 3 YEARS EXPERIENCE

Over a 3-year period, 50 patients with strawberry hemangiomas and 7 patients with postinvolutional redness or telangiectasia were treated with the SPTL-1 laser (Candela Corporation, Wayland, Mass.). The SPTL-1 laser emits pulsed light at a wavelength of 585 nm with a pulse duration of 450 ms. Lesions with a superficial red component were treated even if they had a significant subcutaneous component; however, wholly subcutaneous lesions were excluded. The series included 42 female patients aged between 1 and 72 months (mean 14 months) and 8 male patients aged between 3 and 12 months (mean 7 months). The mean number of treatments administered was 3.8 (range 1 to 8), and the average number of pulses per patient was 55 (range 2 to 350). This series also included 7 patients (6 female and 1 male) with postinvolutional redness or telangiectasia with a mean age of 12 years (range 2 to 23 years). They received an average of 3.4 treatments per patient (range 2 to 8) with an average of 35 pulses per treatment session (range 3 to 150). In this study group, life-threatening complications secondary to the hemangioma were rare in that only one patient suffered from an airway obstruction requiring a tracheostomy and three patients suffered from complete visual occlusion. A significant improvement in color was achieved in 30 patients (53 percent), but there was no appreciable re duction in bulk in any of the lesions despite repeated exposure to laser light.