Air Cooling Effect on Pain Sensation during Dermatologic Laser Treatment

Cho, Jae Joo; Koh, Woo Seok; Kang, Seung Joo

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although most dermatologic laser systems were developed to damage target tissue selectively, the epidermal injury has been a major problem in treating skin lesions of colored people. Recently, to minimize the epidermal damage during laser treatment, superficial cooling is being used. Cooling is one of the well known methods to reduce pain sensation.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an air cooling in reducing pain associated with Q-switched Nd:YAG laser and pulsed dye laser treatment.
METHODS
We measured the temperature of normal skin during air cooling and studied 13 patients treated with a 1064 nm Q-switched Nd:YAG laser or 585 nm pulsed dye laser treatment with and without air cooling system. The degrees of pain reduction rates with and without cooling were assessed by the visual analogue scales.
RESULTS
1. It was shown that cold air flow from 2 cm distance for 10 sec decreased skin temperature about 10.6 degreeC to 17.2 degreeC depending on the body sites. 2. The average of the pain scores was 38.08+/-21.05 on the cooled site as compared to 70.77+/-15.76 on the uncooled site.
CONCLUSIONS
The cold air decreased the skin surface temperature like the other epidermal cooling system and it was very effective to reduce the pain on the cooled site associated with dermatologic laser treatment.