Topical anesthetics do not affect the efficacy of pulsed dye laser (PDL) treatment for erythema, according to a retrospective study published online in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine on August 22, 2019. Douglas C. Wu, MD, et al, reviewed the charts of 69 patients who presented with erythema from telangiectasia, cherry angioma, striae or rosacea on the face, neck, chest and/or extremities. One group of patients had been pretreated with topical anesthesia (23% lidocaine/7% tetracaine ointment or 7% lidocaine/7% tetracaine ointment) prior to PDL. Their outcomes were compared to patients treated without anesthesia. Two blinded dermatologists evaluated postprocedure photographs and gave an assessment compared with baseline.
There was no significant difference in outcomes between the two groups. The mean improvement was 2.2581 in the anesthesia group and 2.2632 in the nonanesthesia group.
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