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American Morning

Lasers Being Used to Eliminate Everyday Skin Problems

Aired September 25, 2002 - 08:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: For years, lasers have been used in eye surgery to correct vision and cure many problems with the human body, but increasingly, lasers are also being used to eliminate everyday skin problems.
Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to talk about that in our House Call.

Good morning to you. Good to see you again, pal. What's the story?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: 7.5 million people have cosmetic procedures every year in this country. A lot of those -- an increasing percentage of those are done by lasers. Lasers has been around since 1958, but a lot of people really haven't used them, specifically for skin lesions. That is becoming increasingly popular. Let's take a look at some of these specific indications as to why people actually use lasers, dermatologists and plastic surgeons specifically.

Enlarged blood vessels on the face, on the legs, places like that. Those are called Telangantasias (ph). The name is not that important, but you may have noticed these, Bill, sometime just enlarged blood vessels actually sticking out on the skin. You can actually ablate those with lasers. Wrinkles, aging skin on the face, neck, unwanted hair, birthmarks, port wine stains, hemageomas (ph), all of these things can be potentially treated by lasers. Also now scars and tattoos can also be taken off by lasers as well. So lots of different indications for lasers. There is a society, an American society for lasers, and medicine and surgery. It's a good thing to look for in terms of your doctor actually being a member of that society before using the lasers.

They look pretty easy to use, but they obviously can have some disastrous consequences.

HEMMER: I'm not much of a tech guy. How do these things work?

GUPTA: They are pretty high tech, and if you actually look at how they work, it looks pretty easy. The real key to these lasers is actually being able to set that little parameter on a certain mark when you're actually lasering certain parts of the body. The skin is thick or thin, depending on where you're lasering. If you go too thick, you can actually cause burns as opposed to just taking off the specific lesion that you're targeting. There is actually stories about that. A woman, this is on the FDA Web site, a woman went to a doctor, a laser surgery doctor, who actually had some acne scars on her face and actually had the laser used for a few weeks afterwards. She had some redness, totally expected, but a few months later, she still had some burns underneath the acne scars. That can happen if the laser is not set properly, and that is a really important thing for doctors to know how to do.

HEMMER: Wrinkles, people have concerns about stretch marks that they obtain over years. When we gauge those two, do they apply here, number one? And the risks involved in this procedure are what?

GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, the way these lasers work, they actually sort of -- quote/unquote -- vaporize, so to speak, the superficial layer of skin. That superficial layer of skin may be a wrinkle, may be a stretch mark, so it's almost like crafting this laser across the skin, a slow burn of these superficial laser. Eventually you can take away some of the wrinkles, but there are risks, no question about it. Again, you want to look for somebody who's done lasering before.

If you don't, here is some of the things that can happen. Besides some the redness that you will actually just see on the face and skin, you might actually have that redness be prolonged. Tenderness at the area that just doesn't go away. Easy flushing of the skin, blushing almost that doesn't go away. It's kind of a new characteristic. Your skin can actually change pigment, can become darker. And so you might have little dark spots now, just the very thing that you were trying to get rid of. And perhaps the most concerning, scarring actually from one of these lasers, that can occur as well.

Again, these are rare things. I'm not trying to scare people, but those things can happen. There are people that know how to use lasers. There are people who don't know how to use lasers, but you'll see them everywhere now, including your family and practice doctors office. Make sure they know what they're doing.

HEMMER: So the bottom line is, the technology gets better, it becomes safer and more effectively and widely used?

GUPTA: Absolutely. If you look at medical practice, we are going to be less invasive, less costly, and all of that sort of stuff. Lasers are a way to do that.

HEMMER: Good to see. See you tomorrow.

GUPTA: Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 25, 2002 - 08:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: For years, lasers have been used in eye surgery to correct vision and cure many problems with the human body, but increasingly, lasers are also being used to eliminate everyday skin problems.
Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to talk about that in our House Call.

Good morning to you. Good to see you again, pal. What's the story?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: 7.5 million people have cosmetic procedures every year in this country. A lot of those -- an increasing percentage of those are done by lasers. Lasers has been around since 1958, but a lot of people really haven't used them, specifically for skin lesions. That is becoming increasingly popular. Let's take a look at some of these specific indications as to why people actually use lasers, dermatologists and plastic surgeons specifically.

Enlarged blood vessels on the face, on the legs, places like that. Those are called Telangantasias (ph). The name is not that important, but you may have noticed these, Bill, sometime just enlarged blood vessels actually sticking out on the skin. You can actually ablate those with lasers. Wrinkles, aging skin on the face, neck, unwanted hair, birthmarks, port wine stains, hemageomas (ph), all of these things can be potentially treated by lasers. Also now scars and tattoos can also be taken off by lasers as well. So lots of different indications for lasers. There is a society, an American society for lasers, and medicine and surgery. It's a good thing to look for in terms of your doctor actually being a member of that society before using the lasers.

They look pretty easy to use, but they obviously can have some disastrous consequences.

HEMMER: I'm not much of a tech guy. How do these things work?

GUPTA: They are pretty high tech, and if you actually look at how they work, it looks pretty easy. The real key to these lasers is actually being able to set that little parameter on a certain mark when you're actually lasering certain parts of the body. The skin is thick or thin, depending on where you're lasering. If you go too thick, you can actually cause burns as opposed to just taking off the specific lesion that you're targeting. There is actually stories about that. A woman, this is on the FDA Web site, a woman went to a doctor, a laser surgery doctor, who actually had some acne scars on her face and actually had the laser used for a few weeks afterwards. She had some redness, totally expected, but a few months later, she still had some burns underneath the acne scars. That can happen if the laser is not set properly, and that is a really important thing for doctors to know how to do.

HEMMER: Wrinkles, people have concerns about stretch marks that they obtain over years. When we gauge those two, do they apply here, number one? And the risks involved in this procedure are what?

GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, the way these lasers work, they actually sort of -- quote/unquote -- vaporize, so to speak, the superficial layer of skin. That superficial layer of skin may be a wrinkle, may be a stretch mark, so it's almost like crafting this laser across the skin, a slow burn of these superficial laser. Eventually you can take away some of the wrinkles, but there are risks, no question about it. Again, you want to look for somebody who's done lasering before.

If you don't, here is some of the things that can happen. Besides some the redness that you will actually just see on the face and skin, you might actually have that redness be prolonged. Tenderness at the area that just doesn't go away. Easy flushing of the skin, blushing almost that doesn't go away. It's kind of a new characteristic. Your skin can actually change pigment, can become darker. And so you might have little dark spots now, just the very thing that you were trying to get rid of. And perhaps the most concerning, scarring actually from one of these lasers, that can occur as well.

Again, these are rare things. I'm not trying to scare people, but those things can happen. There are people that know how to use lasers. There are people who don't know how to use lasers, but you'll see them everywhere now, including your family and practice doctors office. Make sure they know what they're doing.

HEMMER: So the bottom line is, the technology gets better, it becomes safer and more effectively and widely used?

GUPTA: Absolutely. If you look at medical practice, we are going to be less invasive, less costly, and all of that sort of stuff. Lasers are a way to do that.

HEMMER: Good to see. See you tomorrow.

GUPTA: Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com