pulsed dye laser question

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Originally posted by Mark

Hi everyone, i believe I am going to take the pulsed dye laser into great consideration. i'm just really curious could anybody please give me a rough estimation in percent of about how much improvement there will be in the redness and bumps? and, I am very small for my age. The last thing I want to do is stunt my growth. And I heard that some of the pills, they give you after treatment could be harming to your growth plates is any of this true? please somebody respons to my question for Keratosis pilaris rubra faciei god bless you all. And thank you soooo much, from, Mark

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Originally posted by John

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Originally posted by John

Sorry, pc error...here it is:

Hi Mark,
i totally understand that you are exited to get a pdl treatment.I had >10 and only little improvement in normal redness...flushing was as worse than ever before.Then I had treatments vith the longpulsed dye laser(V-star,v-beam) and had an improvement of 60-90% in normal redness (it's not the same everyday)- and good improvement in flushing.But the parameters that must be used for this condition are so strong that you have very strong purpura and swelling in your face.
Soon I'll try the Versa pulse laser and Rick just had a KTP laser treatment, so we'll se what works best for our condition.If the Versa pulse and the KTP won't work then I'll continue with V-Star.
After the V-star treatment you won't be able to go outside for 5 days coz your skin looks very bad but till now it's the only thing that really should work for the most of us.Some are resistant, they should search for other methods like sclerotherapy or botox injection.
Think about it and don't overrate the article on sadhelp/kp/.....coz if you think you can go to a dye laser treatment and then just get cured you'll be very very disappointed.

P.S. And don't expose your facial skin to sun without sunblocker everytime you go out into the sun.Best with a couperose sun face balm(Marbert)!!!Through the sun, the blood vessels grow!

All the best,
John

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Originally posted by Ann

Hi Mark - Rick and I are obviously both on the same track. I have only had one pulse dyed laser treatment done. The extract I posted below recommends more than one may be necessary. As Rick says it definately does not stunt your growth - it just targets the blood vessels. It took me a good two weeks for the bruising to go from my face and probably about 4 to 6 months before the full effects of the treatment were seen. As far as I am aware it is the only one of the two documented treatments for Keratosis Pilairs Atrophicans Faciei. Look at the web page posted by both Rick and myself - it has the best information on the use of laser treatment for your condition. Lastly be encouraged in that this treatment will improve your skin - it may take a few treatments but from the medical article reports it appears that everyone in the trial showed some improvement.

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Originally posted by extract from Medical Journal article about effects of treatment on redness

Treatment of keratosis pilaris atrophicans with the pulsed tunable dye laser.

Clark SM, Mills CM, Lanigan SW.

Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK.

BACKGROUND: Few therapies are currently available to treat keratosis pilaris atrophicans (KPA), a spectrum of disorders which includes ulerythema ophryogenes and atrophoderma vermiculata. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the response of KPA to treatment with the pulsed dye laser (PDL) with regard to improvements in erythema and skin roughness, treatment tolerability, and side effects. METHODS: Treatment of all facial areas involved with KPA with the PDL at 585 nm was evaluated in 12 patients. Prior to and after each treatment skin erythema was estimated using an erythema meter, and skin roughness was analysed using micrometer evaluation of a skin surface biopsy taken from the same mapped area and analysed by computer to calculate the roughness profile. RESULTS: Patients received 2 to 8 treatments with the PDL with energies ranging from 6.0 to 7.5 J/cm2. Clinical improvement was noted in all patients with significant reduction in erythema scores. Pre-treatment scores ranged from 4 to 13 (mean 8.3) and post-treatment 0 to 8 (mean 3.1) (P < 0.05). Improvements in skin roughness were clinically apparent in all but two patients, but these were not significant on evaluation of skin surface biopsies. Treatment was generally well tolerated, and side effects other than local pain during treatment were very few. CONCLUSION: PDL treatment appears to be a safe and effective treatment for the erythema associated with KPA but does not give significant improvement in associated skin roughness.
(READ ARTICLE WITH BEFORE/AFTER PHOTOS HERE)
PMID: 11360333 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Originally posted by Rick

Mark, laser treatment is far from being an exact science and the same laser in the hands of two different derms may produce very different results. The following link mentions one of the few studies relating to lasers and KP <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/sadhelp/kp.htm#Laser">http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/sadhelp/kp.htm#Laser</a>
The co-author of this report (Dr Sean Lanigan) is the guy who gave me my last treatment a week ago with the Aura laser. He said that some of the KPRF patients they treated with pulse dye had been satisfied, and others had been distressed at the amount of purpura (bruising) after one treatment and never came back. The newer pulse dye lasers are the V-Beam (made by Candela) and V-Star (Cynosure). You can contact the companies to find the nearest doctors in your area, but you can't realistically expect them to have had experience with this condition. Don't worry about stories you have heard about lasers affecting your growth. I don't know what you mean by &quot;growth plates&quot; but there are no drugs administered either before or after laser treatment. The laser is simply aiming to target the haemoglobin in the blood vessel, thus causing coagulation and destrucion of the vessel. This has nothing to do with the growth of the rest of your body - I wonder who told you it did! It's best to wait until holiday time for these treatments anyway, since there will be some marks on your face for a week or so afterwards. Hope this helps.