Treatment of a resistant port‐wine stain with a new variable pulse‐duration pulsed‐dye laser

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Because of the heterogeneity in port-wine stains, a number of them prove resistant to treatment with the pulsed-dye laser (PDL). A new variable pulse-duration PDL improves a refractory port-wine stain. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 26-year-old man with a congenital port-wine stain underwent eight treatments with the 1.5-ms pulse-duration PDL resulting in minimal improvement. A single treatment was then administered with the 3-ms pulse-duration PDL. RESULTS: Initial results of treatment with the 3-ms pulse-duration PDL on this patient's port-wine stain show dramatic clearance in areas previously treated with significantly higher fluences, an identical spot size, but with a pulse duration half as long. CONCLUSION: Vessel heterogeneity may require changing pulse durations once a port-wine stain or a portion of a port-wine stain becomes refractory to given pulse-duration.