The Efficacy of Laser Onychomycosis Treatment with Er:YAG in Non-ablative Mode

Onychomycosis is a fungal infection of the nail that affects approximately 10-30% of the world’s population. Although systemic antifungal therapy today represents a recognized standard, it is not recommended for all patient groups due to the cause of side effects. Therefore there is a great need to develop less invasive therapeutic options for the treatment of onychomycosis. Recently, Er:YAG with a novel thermal SMOOTH mode was introduced for non-ablative treatments. In this study involving 7 patients, a new method using an Er:YAG laser in non-ablative mode was compared with the wellestablished therapy using Nd:YAG laser. Preliminary results have shown that using the Er:YAG laser in the non-ablative regime results in a significantly higher temperature at the site of the fungal infection (Figure 3), compared to Nd:YAG treatment, before the pain threshold was achieved. Er:YAG treatment was better tolerated compared to Nd:YAG treatment. Er:YAG laser in non-ablative mode has a high potential for the effective treatment of onychomycosis since very encouraging rates of mycological and clinical cure were observed after two treatment cycles.