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

ABSTRACT

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.