Shorter Treatment Intervals of East Asians with Port-Wine Stain with Pulsed Dye Laser Are Safe and Effective-A Prospective Side-by-Side Comparison.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the safety and efficacy of pulsed dye laser (PDL) at different intervals for the treatment of East Asians with Port-Wine Stain (PWS).

BACKGROUND: The population of East Asians around the world is about 1.6 billion, and they are considered to have more melanin in their skin compared with Caucasians. Nevertheless, no studies about the optimal treatment intervals for East Asians with PWS have been carried out.

METHODS: We prospectively investigated 39 East Asian patients with untreated PWS. Half of the PWS lesion was randomly allocated to be treated at 3 weeks and the other half at 6 weeks. Both halves of the PWS were treated three times in total. The efficacy outcome 2 months post final treatment was evaluated by visual and chromameter evaluation.

RESULTS: The average blanching rate was 40.27% and 44.17% for PDL treatments at the 3- and 6-week interval sites, respectively (p > 0.05). No patient developed scarring or permanent pigmentation change.

LIMITATIONS: There was no age criteria involved in the enrollment of patients in this study. Additionally, there is no comparison with long-term treatments at different intervals.

CONCLUSIONS: PDL treatment at 3-week interval proved to be safe for East Asians with PWS. This can reduce the total duration of the course of treatments and had no increase in side effects compared with the standard interval treatments.