Because of its vascular selectivity, the flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser
(585 nm) is efficacious in the treatment of vascular lesions and is success
fully used for the treatment of port-wine stains and haemangiomas in childr
en. Based on the encouraging results with these cutaneous vascular disorder
s, the cutaneous lesions of patients with lupus erythematosus (LE) have now
also been treated with the pulsed dye laser. Cutaneous lesions in lupus er
ythematosus are often difficult to treat with readily available local thera
peutic methods. Mie report here on a group of 12 patients whose LE lesions
were treated with the pulsed dye laser, In 10 patients, the LE was limited
to the skin, while two patients had systemic LE (SLE). Even in the two pati
ents with SLE, a significant improvement of skin lesions was achieved, Afte
r a mean number of 51 laser sessions, a median clearance rate of 70% was at
tained for nine patients, In one case, the laser treatment failed to clear
the lesions. Two patients did not show any visible improvement of the lesio
ns, but pain and itching were significantly reduced, There were few side-ef
fects, No prolonged laser-induced scarring occurred and in only two patient
s was hyperpigmentation seen, which had resolved completely after 4 and 5 m
onths, respectively During a median follow-up of 7 months (range: 3-32 mont
hs), only one patient (after a complete clearance of the skin lesions) had
a small relapse, In summary, the pulsed dye laser is an effective therapy f
or the treatment of superficial skin lesions in LE.