Port-Wine Stain Treatment

The experts at the Duke Aesthetics Center in Durham, North Carolina, treat everything from age spots to port-wine stains. Port-wine stains occur most often on the face but can appear anywhere on the body.

Early stains are usually flat and pink in appearance. As a child matures, the color may deepen to a dark red or purplish color. The presence of a port-wine stain can cause emotional and social problems for the affected person because of their appearance.

Port-wine stains that involve the upper and lower lids (trigeminal distribution) may be associated with the development of glaucoma. This procedure will remove the physical as well as emotional scars of port-wine stains, allowing the patient to enjoy living with a beautiful, flawless face.

Procedure Details

Many treatments have been tried for port-wine stains including freezing, surgery, radiation, and tattooing. Lasers have made the biggest impact on treatment, because they are the sole method of destroying the cutaneous capillaries without significant damage to the overlying skin.

The flashlamp pumped-dye laser, a yellow light laser, has been the most successful at destroying stains in infants and young children.

Two other yellow light lasers, the copper vapor and krypton laser, have been used successfully in adults. The neodymium-YAG laser is used to treat thick, nodular, deep purple port-wine stains.

The procedure is quick and relatively painless.

Recovery

There may be slight swelling, redness, and a mottled look to the skin immediately following treatment.

A gray, and sometimes dark gray, color may manifest and sometimes lasts anywhere from three to seven days.

How Long Will the Results Last?

Although multiple treatments may be required, once complete, the results are permanent.

Risks

If the laser is used improperly there is the possibility that further skin disfiguration may occur. 

Physicians

Physicians offering this service include:

• Burton, Claude S. III
  • Dermatology
• Woodward, Julie Ann
  • Ophthalmology / Oculoplastic and Reconstructive Surgery Service

Locations

This service is available at:

• Duke Aesthetic Center
  3475 Erwin Road, Durham, NC 27705