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LASER TREATMENT FOR SKIN DISEASES

Laima Bloznelyte¹, Vytautas Cepulis¹, Igor Ponomarev^2
1Laboratory pf PDT, Lithuanian Oncology Center, 
Vilnius 2600
²Lebedev Physics Inst. Moscow 117-924

ABSTRACT

The correct selection of patients is the most difficult part of the laser treatment. Since 1985 the total number of patients treated by us using different laser systems was 1544 (2622 benign and malignant skin lesions). High power lasers: Nd: YAG and CO2 lasers were used by us for surgical treatment. Low power lasers: Helium-Neon (gas), Copper vapour, Gold vapour and Dye lasers were applied by us to PDT or to treatment of port wine hemangiomas. This paper reports our efforts in selecting the patients with different skin lesions for the treatment with different laser systems.

Key words: Skin lesions, different laser systems.

INTRODUCTION

Since 1963 when Leon Goldman pioneered the use of the laser in dermatology surgical procedures, laser treatment has gained rapid recognition in the medical centers in USA and Europe. Little specific information is available on the diffusion and use lasers in Europe.

The data presented in Table 1. depicts the number of high power lasers for medical or health care purposes in a number of selected countries in 1991².

Table 1. The number of lasers and lasers per million population in selected countries in 1990-1991

  The evidence of effectiveness of laser applications is unfortunately rather limited. There are only some areas in which laser use can be considered mature.

One of such areas is dermatology². Especially port wine stain birthmarks and other vascular malformations are effectively treated with laser and there is no satisfactory non-laser therapy^2,4,7.

Laser treatment of tumors, using high - power laser and photodynamic therapy has great potential, too, and further research could lead to benefits for a large number of patients^3,6.

The use of low power lasers remains to be the area of clinical c ontroversy, nevertheless its application is rapidly expanding and diffusing in various fields of medicine^2,5.

The correct selection of patients is the most difficult part of the laser treatment. Thus the physicians using a laser must be familiar with the conventional procedure since laser is the only tool replacing other ones.

This paper reports our efforts in selecting the patients with different skin lesions for the treatment with different laser systems.

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