ABSTRACT
References 255
1. INTRODUCTION
Although numerous laser and nonlaser pulsed photothermal devices are currently avail-
able for the treatment of vascular lesions, no single system has proven uniformly effective
in the treatment of the wide variety of disorders encountered in clinical practice (1). Over
the past few years, multiple individual case reports and clinical studies have highlighted
the fact that any single laser system can show some degree of efficacy in the treatment
of vascular lesions. Argon at 488 and 514 nm (2-4), argon pumped dye at 577-585 nm
(5,6), potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) at 532 nm (7,8), pulsed dye at 585 nm (9-11)
and 595 nm (12), krypton at 530 nm (13), copper vapor at 578 nm (14-16), copper
bromide at 578 nm (17), alexandrite at 755 nm (18), diode at 810 nm (19), neodymium
YAG at 1064 nm (20-22), and carbon dioxide at 10,600 nm (23-26) lasers and intense
pulsed light have all shown a variable efficacy in the treatment of vascular lesions.
