The efficacy of pulsed dye laser pretreated with or without local anesthetic on patients presenting with erythema of face, neck, chest, and extremities

Retrospective study of 69 subjects with erythema from various skin conditions including telangiectasia, cherry angioma, striae, and rosacea. 31 patients were pretreated with topical anesthetics before 1-6 Vbeam treatments, while 38 patients had no pretreatment anesthetic. Improvement was observed in both groups by blinded dermatologists, with no significant difference between groups. 

Reference: Chunharas C, Boen M, Alhaddad M, Wu DC. Lasers Surg Med. 2020 Apr;52(4):307-314.

Study Details:

  • Retrospective study of 69 subjects with erythema from various skin conditions including telangiectasia, cherry angioma, striae, and rosacea.
  • 31 patients (21 females, 10 males; mean age 48.8) were pretreated with topical anesthetics (23% lidocaine/7% tetracaine ointment or 7% lidocaine/7% tetracaine ointment) before PDL (Vbeam Perfecta) therapy, 38 patients (25 females, 13 males; mean age 46.1) had no pretreatment anesthetic.
  • Subjects underwent 1 - 6 Vbeam treatments.
  • 2 blinded dermatologists evaluated digital photographs for erythema improvement, using a quartile scale (0 = 0%, 4 = 76–100%).

Study Results:

  • Mean improvement of 2.2581 in the anesthesia group, 2.2632 in the non-anesthesia group (no significant difference).
  • No significant difference between both groups as confirmed by a noninferiority test.