Laser technology might have transformed the landscape of dermatology in many ways, but Consultant Dermatologist Dr Louise O’Halloran says it hasn’t taken over the day-to-day practice of what she does for patients.
“A lot of what we’re doing as dermatologists is managing skin cancer requiring surgical excision or, alternatively, treating someone with psoriasis or eczema who may need to consider topical therapies, oral immunosuppressives, biologics, or narrowband UVB phototherapy.
“Lasers are simply another tool in our toolbox that we use for particular conditions, to assist in managing the conditions we treat in the field of Dermatology. They can be very helpful, with good evidence from published research on their benefits.
“Lasers are far more sophisticated than they were, say 15 years ago, because the technology wasn’t as good then. Lasers have been used in Dermatology for some time now. We have used a vascular laser in our Dermatology department at Perth Children’s Hospital for many years, for port wine stains and ulcerated infantile haemangiomas.”
Dr O’Halloran, an AMA (WA) member, says one of the improvements in laser treatments is that the downtime for patients has reduced significantly.
“This makes it more accessible to patients, because previously with some CO2 laser treatments patients might have a downtime of one to two weeks where their skin was incredibly swollen, which makes that treatment much more undesirable,” she says.
