Treatment
Many treatments have been tried for port-wine stains including freezing, surgery, radiation, and tattooing; port-wine stains can also be covered with cosmetics. Lasers have made the biggest impact on treatment, because they are the sole method of destroying the cutaneous capillaries without significant damage to the overlying skin.
The flashlamp pumped dye laser, a yellow light laser, has been the most successful at destroying stains in infants and young children. The neodymium YAG laser is used to treat the nodules that may develop in some adult port-wine stains.
Treatment of infants with the flashlamp pumped dye laser generally produces marked improvement in appearance.
However, complete disappearance is rare. In approximately 20% of cases, there may be no improvement at all. Stains on the face respond better than those on the trunk or limbs. Older stains may be more difficult to treat.
Read more about this topic: Port-wine Stain
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“[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child’s duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.”
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