Flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser for hemangiomas in infancy: treatment of superficial vs mixed hemangiomas.

OBJECTIVE: To study in a compared manner the efficacy of flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser (FPDL) therapy for superficial and mixed hemangiomas.

DESIGN: Nonrandomized control trial.

SETTING: Department of Lasermedicine, General Hospital Neukölln, Berlin, Germany.

PATIENTS: To investigate variation in response to treatment, a prospective study of 165 children with 225 separate hemangiomas treated with the FPDL was undertaken. Patients were aged 2 days to 7 years; mean follow-up was 5 months.

INTERVENTIONS: During a 2 1/2-year period, we administered 332 treatments, for a mean+/-SD of 2.0+/-1.1 treatments per patient.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Patients received therapy until the lesion was almost clear or until the lesion did not respond to treatment. Evaluation was performed by comparing pretreatment and posttreatment photographs. In addition, pathologic flow of vessels and thickness were determined before, during, and after completion of therapy with color-coded duplex sonography.

RESULTS: In the first group of 100 patients with 153 flat cutaneous hemangiomas, 52 hemangiomas (34%) had excellent results; 80 (52%) had good results; and 21 (14%) showed proliferation of the subcutaneous component, although these lesions were flat at first presentation. Of the 54 mixed hemangiomas, 33 (61%) had continued proliferation of the subcutaneous component. The cutaneous component responded to therapy in 21 hemangiomas (39%), whereas the subcutaneous component of the mixed hemangiomas remained unchanged. No lesions in this group involuted completely, and therapy was discontinued because of relatively poor response. Twelve (67%) of 18 patients with superficial hemangiomas in the involution phase had excellent results and 6 (33%) had good results.

CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with the FPDL is effective and may be the treatment of choice for superficial cutaneous hemangiomas at sites of potential functional impairment and on the face. Hemangiomas with a deep component do not benefit from FPDL treatment because the efficacy of the FPDL is limited by its depth of vascular injury. Furthermore, early therapeutic intervention with the FPDL may not prevent proliferative growth of the deeper or subcutaneous component of the hemangioma despite early intervention.