Port-Wine Stains Can Return After Laser Treatment
Mar. 23 -- WEDNESDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- Laser treatment of port-wine stains can lighten these disfiguring facial blemishes, but its effect may not be permanent, new research suggests.
A team from the Netherlands concluded that port-wine stains treated with pulsed-dye laser therapy often re-darken after a number of years.
"Although pulsed-dye laser treatment of port-wine stains is still the best and most effective method currently available, patients should be aware of the fact that the effect of this treatment may not last forever and that the port-wine stain may return -- in part -- at long-term follow-up," said Dr. Menno Huikeshoven, a plastic surgery resident at Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
His team reported its findings in the March 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
A port-wine stain is a reddish-purple birthmark that often appears on the face. About three out of every 1,000 Americans has a port-wine stain, according to the National Library of Medicine. Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev was perhaps the most famous figure to have such a blemish.
These skin discolorations are often present at birth but may be much lighter in babies and young children. Port-wine stains tend to darken with age.
Before laser treatments became available, port-wine stains were treated with freezing, radiation, tattooing and even surgery. Those methods could cause scarring, however. In contrast, pulsed-dye laser treatments have a low incidence of side effects, according to Dr. Barry Auster, a dermatologist at Providence Hospital and Medical Center in Southfield, Mich.
"Pulsed-dye laser is one of the most safe, predictable treatments we have," said Auster.
The number of treatments needed depends on the size and the darkness of the stain, according to Huikeshoven. Auster said an initial series of between six and eight treatments spaced about 60 to 90 days apart isn't uncommon.
Because the treatment is relatively new -- it was introduced in the mid-1980s, according to Auster -- information on the long-term results of laser treatment has been scarce.
