THE INFLUENCE OF VOLATILE ANESTHETICS ON PORT-WINE STAIN

To examine the relationship between volatile inhalation anesthetics an d the fading of portwine stain (PWS), the study retrospectively invest igated the incidence of termination of pulsed dye laser treatment vis- a-vis PWS fade during use of a general inhalation anesthetic in 107 in fants and children with facial PWS. The fading of PWS is disadvantageo us to the pulsed dye laser treatment. All patients received pulsed dye laser treatment under general anesthesia using one of four kinds of v olatile inhalation anesthetics (halothane, enflurane, isoflurane, and sevoflurane). Two hours before the induction of anesthesia, all patien ts were rectally irrigated. Treatment was discontinued in none of the 44 patients in the halothane group or the 7 patients in the enflurane group; in one of the 29 in the isoflurane group; and in 10 of the 27 p atients in the sevoflurane group. The sevoflurane group showed a signi ficantly (P<0.01) higher incidence of PWS fading. Thus, when using a v olatile inhalation anesthetic in combination with pulsed dye laser tre atment for PWS, caution should be exercised if sevoflurane is selected , as PWS fading is harmful to the pulsed dye laser.