Can port-wine stains be removed?

Port-wine stains won’t go away on their own, but they can be treated. Laser therapies can make many port-wine stains much less noticeable by shrinking the blood vessels in the birthmark and fading it.

How many laser treatments does it take to remove port-wine stains?

The pulsed dye laser, the standard therapy for port-wine stains since 1986, can achieve 50% to 75% lightening within 2 to 3 treatments.

Are port-wine stains permanent?

A port-wine stain is a permanent birthmark present from birth. It starts out pinkish or reddish and turns darker as the child grows. Most often, a port-wine stain appears on the face, but it can affect other areas of the body.

How do you lighten a port wine stain birthmark?

The best way to treat them is with lasers, which are attracted to the blood present in the affected area. To lighten the stain, most patients require multiple laser treatments. Complete removal is often not possible. While laser treatment can be commenced in early childhood, we only treat the adult population.

How do you fix port wine stains?

There are currently two options for treating port wine stains: laser treatment and cosmetic camouflage. Laser treatment, with a pulsed dye laser, is currently the treatment of choice for fading a port wine stain. It may also help the ‘cobblestone’ effect that can develop in adulthood.

Do port wine stains get worse with age?

While the size and distribution of the lesions do not change with age, increased age correlates with progressive vascular ectasia and color shifts from pink to purple [7].

Can port wine stains become cancerous?

Most birthmarks, such as the common port wine stains and strawberry marks, carry no risk of developing into a cancer. But a very rare type, called a giant congenital melanocytic naevus, can develop into a melanoma if it is larger than 20cm.

Can port-wine stains become cancerous?

Why are babies born with port-wine stains?

It is almost always a birthmark. It is caused by abnormal development of tiny blood vessels. Usually port-wine stains are found from birth in newborn babies. They are formed because the tiny blood vessels (capillaries) in the skin are too big (dilated).

Do port wine stains run in families?

Is a Port Wine Stain hereditary? Port Wine Stains do not often run in families; however, they are relatively common, affecting about 1 in 300 babies, equally in both sexes. Port Wine Stains are not contagious or cancerous.

Are port-wine stains rare?

Port-wine stains are birthmarks that look like someone spilled wine on the skin. About 3 out of every 1,000 children are born with this pink-to-reddish mark.

Do port-wine stains get worse with age?

Does laser treatment work on port wine stains?

Laser surgery is the only treatment that works on port-wine stains with less risk of damaging or scarring the skin. Sometimes, laser treatments may make the pigmentation darker than normal, but this usually is just temporary.

Are port wine stains blanchable?

Port wine stains, or as health care providers like to call it capillary malformations, or nevus flammeus are widening and/or overgrowth of the smallest blood vessels called capillaries in the skin. They look like spilled port wine, i.e. purple–red to pink flat blanchable discoloration of skin.

Can a tattoo cover a port wine stain?

Laser treatment is the main treatment for port-wine stains. However this is not always successful. Medical tattooing can camouflage the port-wine stain with a pigment which comes as close as possible to the own skin color. Generally, we see and treat patients in whom the laser treatment was not successful.

What is a port wine stain?

A port wine stain is a birthmark caused by the overdevelopment of blood vessels underneath the skin. The change in the blood vessels is caused by a genetic mutation which occurs before a child is born, and will remain for the rest of a person’s life – though the severity of them differs between people. Port wine stains…