Pulsed dye laser (PDL) in the treatment of portwine stains: a narrative review

Portwine stains (PWS) lesions are one of the most common childhood vascular malformations that gradually increase in color and thickness without treatment and have profound devastating psychological effects on the child. For this reason, and also because the lesions become resistant to treatment over time, early treatment of these lesions is very important. pulsed dye laser (PDL) is currently the treatment of choice for these lesions. In almost all aspects of the treatment of these lesions with PDL laser, disagreement and sometimes contradictory data are found among various studies. These include the uncertainty of the optimal number of treatment sessions, the appropriate age to start treatment, the optimal parameters to start treatment with and possible methods to increase the effectiveness of PDL, possible treatment side effects and how to deal with them, as well as using different methods to reduce patient discomfort during treatment. The present article collects and reviews existing studies in this field.