Clinical results recently demonstrated improvement in lesion blanching using local vacuum to target small vessels in port wine stains (PWS) birthmarks laser therapy. The release of cryogen spurts under vacuum pressures may also offer many advantages to this therapeutic procedure due to different spray-surface interactions under vacuum conditions, which may lead to enhanced heat transfer. The ob...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Pulsed dye laser (PDL) is the most effective treatment for port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks. However, regeneration and revascularization of photocoagulated blood vessels may result in poor therapeutic outcome. We have recently shown that rapamycin (RPM), an angiogenesis inhibitor, can reduce the regeneration and revascularization of photocoagulated blood vessels. Herei...

Cryogen spray cooling (CSC) is used to pre-cool the epidermis during laser dermatological procedures such as treatment of port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks. It is known that PWS patients with medium to high epidermal melanin concentrations are at a high risk of epidermal thermal damage after laser irradiation. To avoid this complication, it is necessary to maximize CSC efficiency and, thus, esse...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Despite application of cryogen spray (CS) precooling, customary treatment of port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks with a single laser pulse does not result in complete lesion blanching for a majority of patients. One obvious reason is nonselective absorption by epidermal melanin, which limits the maximal safe radiant exposure. Another possible reason for treatment failure i...

477 Vascular anomalies (birthmarks) are commonly encountered lesions and vary from tiny skin discolorations to large, devastating lesions requiring invasive interventions (Table 1).1 These lesions can involve any part of the body, but the lower extremities, particularly the foot and ankle regions, are commonly affected. A vascular anomaly in the foot or ankle usually requires treatment because ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Clinical results have demonstrated that dark purple port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks respond favorably to laser induced photothermolysis after the first three to five treatments. Nevertheless, complete blanching is rarely achieved and the lesions stabilize at a red-pink color. In a feasibility study (Part I), we showed that local hypobaric pressure on PWS human skin pr...

Cryogen spray cooling (CSC) is used to minimize the risk of epidermal damage in various laser dermatological procedures such as treatment of port wine stain birthmarks and hair removal. However, the spray characteristics and combination of CSC and heating (laser) to obtain optimal treatments have not yet been determined. The distance between the nozzle tip and the skin surface for commercial de...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Although cryogen spray cooling (CSC) in conjunction with laser therapy has become the clinical standard for treatment of port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks, the current approach does not produce complete lesion blanching in the vast majority of patients. The objectives of this study are to: (1) experimentally determine the dynamic CSC heat flux when a skin phantom is pre...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Since the development of laser-induced photothermolysis for the therapy of port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks, clinical results have shown that dark purple lesions usually respond well to the first three to five treatments. However, for most PWS, complete blanching is never achieved, and the lesion stabilizes at a red-pink color. The aim of this feasibility study is to d...