Lasers no permanent fix for many port-wine stains

BOSTON (Reuters) - Laser treatments do not permanently remove birthmarks known as port-wine stains, researchers said on Wednesday.

The stains, caused by enlarged capillaries in the skin, occur at birth in 0.3 percent of the population and are most prominent on the face. Probably the most famous stain is on the head of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Since 1989, removal using a pulsed-dye laser has been the recommended treatment for those who want them gone.

Menno Huikeshoven of the University of Amsterdam and colleagues found that the improvement was often only temporary, even after repeated treatments.

Of the 51 people examined 10 years after successful laser treatment, 35 percent said their stains had turned dark again.

Only 6 percent said their stains had continued to lighten and 59 percent said there had been no change in color, the researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Overall, 41 percent said they were not satisfied with the treatment.

Huikeshoven's team concluded that patients should be cautioned of the problem before treatment.

It is possible, they said, that newer lasers, with longer wavelengths, greater energies and other improvements, may reduce the risk of redarkening, but that idea remains to be tested.