EFFECTIVELY TREATING VASCULAR and pigmented lesions — from common facial telangiectasias to more challenging hemangiomas — relies on identifying the appropriate tools and then honing one's technique to achieve the best results. However, more often than not, patients want to make the most of their sessions by undergoing concomitant facial resurfacing to improve wrinkles and texture changes related to repeated sun exposure, according to William F. Groff, D.O., who practices alongside aesthetic laser pioneer, Richard Fitzpatrick, M.D., at the La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre, in La Jolla, Calif. In these cases, Dr. Groff tells Cosmetic Surgery Times, a combination of two or more lasers is often the best approach. Here, Dr. Groff offers tips and perspective on wrinkle and vascular and pigmented lesion treatment strategies that result in patients whose post-procedure appearance is ultimately the best form of marketing.

RESULTS DELIVERED The most common facial lesions that patients request treatment for are wrinkles, telangiectasias and solar lentigines according to Dr. Groff, who adds that these are followed in frequency by rosacea, melasma, cherry angiomas and spider angiomas.

"Facial telangiectasias, cherry angiomas and spider angiomas are fairly easy to treat if you have the right tools," says Dr. Groff. They can all be treated very safely and effectively with pulsed dye lasers (PDLs) in just one or two sessions. "PDL has a long track record and is certainly considered the gold standard, so if the practitioner wants to treat both vascular and pigmented lesions, the PDL is one unit that can be counted on to deliver reliable, predictable and safe results. We have about 20 lasers in our practice and the PDL is probably the safest. The chance of having a problem or complication is extremely rare."

There is a high demand for facial laser resurfacing in Dr. Groff's practice and almost every person who comes in for resurfacing has brown spots and telangiectasias. "But no matter what kind of fractional resurfacing device you use, most telangiectasias and some brown spots remain." To get the best results, Dr. Groff recommends using a combination of lasers. "There's not one box that does it all and does it all the best," he says.

For a patient who has facial telangiectasias, solar lentigines and wrinkles, Dr. Groff recommends using the PDL to remove the capillaries, the PDL or Q-switched alexandrite to remove the lentigines, then immediately treating with fractional CO₂ resurfacing all in one session. "The results are much better than if you use any of these technologies alone," he says. "Dr. Fitzpatrick and I have been doing these combination treatments for years, and we've never had any complications from combining lasers in one session. Our results are excellent and patients appreciate not having to come back for separate treatments, which would incur more social downtime. There's a synergistic effect where the results are much better when these treatments are done at the same time, in comparison to doing them separately," he adds.

Taking the synergistic effect one step further, Dr. Groff recommends pretreating with BOTOX around the glabella, the forehead and the crow's feet area one to two weeks before performing fractional resurfacing. "If you do this, those muscles are relaxed so they're not contracting and etching lines into freshly resurfaced skin," he explains.