Treatment of vascular abnormalities with a long-pulse diode at 980 nm.
Lasers have been used to treat a variety of vascular abnormalities for over 20 years. For minor vascular targets, a small and friendly diode laser with cooling handpiece appears to be a challenger to other systems. The purpose of this study was to compile treatment data and to examine the effectiveness of a longer pulse duration diode laser in the treatment of vascular pathologies such as facial telangiectasia, venous lakes, spider nevi, blue telangiectasia, leg veins and dermatological treatments. Thirty patients were treated with the diode laser with a pulse of 150 ms, energy densities of 300-500 J/cm(2) and wavelength at 980 nm. Patients were treated with a surface cooling device. Clinical evaluations were categorized into improvements of 0-25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and greater than 75%. 60% of the patients have up to 50% improvement. The maximum clearance was obtained with only one treatment. However even the cooling system is performed +5 degrees C, pain was relatively high for a majority of patients. The long-pulse diode laser at 980 nm is effective for treating a wide variety of small vascular abnormalities, for deep and thick vascular lesions and leg veins. The surface cooling device is useful for epidermal protection and pain-free treatment.