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Laser therapy in dermatology has become a popular method in treatment of skin related issues. However, an improper administration of laser beam on skin can lead to negative effects on the patients’ physical and emotional well-being. While quite a fair bit of experimental data is available for laser-skin interactions, the inherent bias due to geographical developments of these techniques have led to a neglect towards skins of color. Hence, for a large section of the society and skin types, the existing methods are no better than an educated guess. Mathematical models performing simulations of various effects of laser on the skin tissue while also considering different skin properties and melanin content can fill the gaps in the dermatological knowledge. In this paper, a numerical study is conducted to investigate the temperature profiles induced by various lasers commonly used in dermatological therapies within a multi-layered skin tissue model. The model, constructed using the Virtual Element Method with Voronoi meshing, incorporated three primary skin layers along with an underlying muscle layer. To account for the heterogeneous nature of the epidermis, sublayers including stratum corneum, epidermis, basal layer, and melanin were considered, with melanin modeled as dispersed particles within the epidermis. Additionally, a vascular layer was included in specific simulations to investigate the effects of vascular targeting. The simulations provide detailed temperature profiles generated by four different lasers, highlighting the impact of laser parameters and tissue properties on thermal response. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of laser-tissue interactions and can inform the development of more effective and targeted dermatological treatments. • A model for multi-layered human skin, muscle tissue, and blood vessels is developed. • The Virtual Element Method with Voronoi meshing for skin and epidermis layers is established. • The thermal response of skin to four therapy lasers is discussed: Excimer, Dye, Alexandrite, Diode.
Azhdari et al. (Fri,) studied this question.