2001 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 27-34
(Objective) We report that we have experienced the latest treatment of leg telangiectasias using a long-pulse dye laser for the first time in Japan.
(Material and Methods) We studied 30 sites of leg telangiectasias (thigh: n=15, lower leg: n=11, foot: n=4) in 21 female volunteers. The maximum diameter of vessels was limited to slightly over 1 mm in red and blue telangiectasias. In most cases the set-up of long-pulse dye laser was wavelengths of 595 nm and fluences of 15J/cm3 (with a fixed pulse duration at 1.5 ms). Patients were comparatively studied at the average of 2.8 month interval after the laser treatment, using photography.
(Results) Excepting the sites of foot (n=4), ≧50% clearance was noted in 14/26 (54%) . While the ≧50% clearance of developed red telangiectasias was shown in 83% (10/12), that of complicated blue telangiectasias and reticular veins was seen in 38% (3/8) and 17% (1/6), respectively. As the side effects of laser treatment, hyperpigmentation (70%) and hypopigmentation (3%) were observed. Finally, we evaluated the treatment as effective (7%), fairly effective (33%), unchanged (40%) and worse (20%).
(Conclusion) These results suggest that the laser therapy may explore new treatment methods for leg telangiectasias in addition to the “gold standard” sclerotherapy.
