Treatment of essential telangiectasias with an intense pulsed light source (PhotoDerm VL)

BACKGROUND The flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser (585 and 577 nm) has proven to be a very effective and safe treatment option in the therapy of essential telangiectasias (ETE). Nevertheless, the postoperative intracutaneous hematomata, which most patients see as cosmetically disfiguring, always has been a matter of concern. OBJECTIVE To test the efficacy and safety of a new, large spot size, intense pulsed light source, the PhotoDerm VL, which omits noncoherent light adjustable within the 515-1200-nm range, in the treatment of ETE. METHODS Fourteen patients were treated with the PhotoDerm VL. They suffered from ETE of the face, postoperative teleangiectasis of the nose, ETE of both legs, and poikiloderma of Civatte. RESULTS All treated lesions could be abrogated with excellent results by this new device. There were no unpleasant side effects of the treatment. Additionally, due to the large spot size (2.8 cm2), a larger area could be treated within one session. No anesthesia was required. CONCLUSION The PhotoDerm VL is an innovative, highly effective, and comparably safe therapeutic alternative to the laser in the treatment of ETE. The rate of cosmetically relevant side effects is considerably smaller, the patient compliance is excellent, and the method can be applied easily in an outpatient setting.