Laser treatment safe for infants' birthmarks

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The best time to treat the type of birthmarks called port wine stains may be well before children are even aware they have them, a new study suggests.

Port wine stains are thin and flat in babies, but in two-thirds of children the birthmarks will eventually thicken and develop bleeding growths, making them more disfiguring and also tougher to treat, Dr. Anne Chapas of the Laser & Skin Surgery Center of New York told Reuters Health.

Traditionally, she added, parents have been told to wait to have the birthmarks treated until the children are older.

At the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery annual meeting in Palm Desert, California, Chapas and her colleagues reported on a review of 51 children who had begun treatment for port wine stains before they were six months old. The youngest started treatment at two weeks of age. Children underwent the treatments every four to six weeks, and received an average of about 10 laser sessions in all.

When the researchers compared pre-treatment photos to photos taken after one year of treatment, they found that 88.6 percent of the birthmark area had been cleared, on average. Clearance for individual patients ranged from 65 percent to 99.7 percent. None of the infants developed scarring or changes in skin color after treatment.

While the children did develop some bruising, which is an expected consequence of laser treatment, Chapas said, none required anesthesia. For the treatment, the infants are laid down with the eyes covered and then the laser pulse is delivered, which takes less than a minute for a full facial treatment.

"The child is kind of startled and crying because they don't know what's going on," she explained, "but once the treatment is over they're back to normal."

Another advantage of early treatment, she and her colleagues point out, is that these young patients won't risk the psychological complications some older children with large facial birthmarks may suffer.