Laser Surgery has taken gigantic steps forward in recent years and the use of medical lasers in dermatological surgery is a technique of great value. A laser is a device producing an intense beam of light, visible or invisible, which can be focused on a small area. Laser beams are different from x-rays in that there is no ionizing radiation in the beam of light of lasers. Eleven types of laser are now being used in our office surgery unit: Thermally designed lasers: CO2 Erbium:YAG, CO2 SilkTouch and CO2 FeatherTouch. Selective photothermolysis lasers: Candela ScleroPlus Dye, Aura KTP, Q-Switched Ruby, Nd:YAG, EpiTouch Ruby, EpiTouch Alexandrite and CoolGlide.

These lasers are used for the treatment of several skin diseases:

1. Vascular Lesions of the skin (ScleroPlus Dye, Aura KTP, CoolGlide):

  • nevus flammeus (port-wine malformation)
  • cherry hemangioma
  • varicosities of lower extremities
  • generalized facial erythema
  • veinous lakes (lips)
  • telangietatic vessel of the face (blemishes - rosacea)
  • non specific telangiectatic vessel of the face
  • vascular spider (nevus araneus)
  • capillary hemangioma (strawberry mark)
  • pyogenic granuloma

2. Skin Planing with Erbium:YAG or CO2 Silk-FeatherTouch Laser (Laserbrasion):

  • acne scars
  • wrinkles and fine lines (rejuvenation)
  • rhinophyma (hypertrophic nose)

3. Keloids and Hypertrophic scars (CO2, Erbium:YAG and Dye lasers).

4. Warts (CO2, ScleroPlus Dye lasers)

  • juvenile flat warts
  • plantar warts
  • periungual warts
  • condylomas (moist warts, venereal warts)
  • molluscum contagiosum

5. Pigmented Benign Lesions (Q-switched Ruby and Nd:YAG lasers):

  • lentigines (actinic, age spots)
  • freckles
  • café-au-lait spots
  • junctional flat pigmented naevi
  • some types of superficial melasma
  • pigmented congenital birth marks
  • Becker nevus
  • Nevus of OTA
  • postinflammatory hyperpigmentation

6. Precancerous Lesions (CO2 laser):

  • actinic keratosis (sun induced)
  • leukoplakia of lips, skin horns
  • actinic cheilitis (lips)
  • Bowen's disease (intraepidermal carcinoma)

7. Cancerous Lesions (CO2 laser):

  • basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas
  • melanoma and lentigo maligna

8. Small Tumors and Superficial Cysts (CO2 and Erbium:YAG lasers):

  • milium cysts (large ones)
  • syringomas (small cystic lesions of eyelids)
  • dermatofibroma
  • neurofibroma
  • sebaceous cysts and epidermal cysts
  • cysts of the mucous membrane of the mouth and the lips

9. Nail Lesions (CO2 laser):

  • ingrown toenails
  • onychomycosis (athletic foot-like fungus nail infection resistant to oral antifungal medication)

10. Nevoid Lesions (CO2, Erbium:YAG, Q-Switched Ruby or Nd:YAG laser):

  • seborrheic keratosis (senile warts)
  • sebaceous hyperplasia
  • sebaceous nevus
  • cellular intradermal nevus (non pigmented mole)
  • pigmented junctional nevus and pigmented mole
  • skin tag (acrochordon)

11. Tattoos (Q-Switched Ruby or Nd:YAG laser)

12. Laser Hair Removal (Ruby, Alexandrite EpiTouch or CoolGlide Laser).

 

 

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