I Can See Clearly Now:Optical Clearing Is Star of ASLMS

O ptical clearing is a new concept that was introduced at last year’s American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) meeting. In essence, optical clearing agents make the skin look like “water instead of milk,” described Dr. Misbah Khan, a laser surgery fellow at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic and the University of California, Irvine. This year, Dr. Khan presented exciting new research, during her award-winning talk, on using optical clearing agents to improve clinical outcomes with a variety of laser therapies. How is Optical Clearing Achieved? Before discussing these results, it’s important to have a brief overview of optical clearing agents. Typically, these agents are applied topically to the skin, and they’re usually made of a mixture of polypropylene glycol and polyethylene glycol, reported J. Stuart Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic, in our annual laser surgery issue last July. Dr. Nelson, who is also Professor of Surgery, Dermatology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California at Irvine, explained that after optical clearing agents are applied, patients wait about 2 hours for their skin to “clear,” or in other words, to become more transparent. When the skin takes on this quality, then optical beams can penetrate more deeply into the skin because there’s much less dermal scattering. This then causes the skin to have a lower threshold for purpura, and as a result you won’t see the same degree of epidermal injury that you would typically see in skin not treated with an optical clearing agent. How are These Agents Being Used? At this stage of research, optical clearing agents have proved useful in laser-assisted hair and tattoo removal. However, Dr. Khan presented new data using these agents to enhance treatment of scars, wrinkles, melasma, striae distensae and pigmentation in conjunction with fractional resurfacing. She received the Best Overall Clinical Science Award from ASLMS for her research. During her presentation, Dr. Khan highlighted her successful attempts to increase the depth of the microscopic treatment zones created when using the Fraxel laser system. She studied samples of facial skin from 12 people. The skin samples were submerged in an optical clearing agent for 2 hours prior to fractional resurfacing. Following a histologic analysis, Dr. Khan discovered that she was able to achieve a 12% increase in the maximum depth of the microthermal damage zones. At the same time, none of the skin samples had microthermal damage zones that were increased in width or in lateral dimension. This research offers insight into safer and more effective outcomes with laser therapies, and the new concept of optical clearing may have far-reaching benefits in effectively treating many kinds of conditions. Larisa Hubbs Executive Editor lhubbs@hmpcommunications.com

O ptical clearing is a new concept that was introduced at last year’s American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) meeting. In essence, optical clearing agents make the skin look like “water instead of milk,” described Dr. Misbah Khan, a laser surgery fellow at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic and the University of California, Irvine. This year, Dr. Khan presented exciting new research, during her award-winning talk, on using optical clearing agents to improve clinical outcomes with a variety of laser therapies. How is Optical Clearing Achieved? Before discussing these results, it’s important to have a brief overview of optical clearing agents. Typically, these agents are applied topically to the skin, and they’re usually made of a mixture of polypropylene glycol and polyethylene glycol, reported J. Stuart Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic, in our annual laser surgery issue last July. Dr. Nelson, who is also Professor of Surgery, Dermatology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California at Irvine, explained that after optical clearing agents are applied, patients wait about 2 hours for their skin to “clear,” or in other words, to become more transparent. When the skin takes on this quality, then optical beams can penetrate more deeply into the skin because there’s much less dermal scattering. This then causes the skin to have a lower threshold for purpura, and as a result you won’t see the same degree of epidermal injury that you would typically see in skin not treated with an optical clearing agent. How are These Agents Being Used? At this stage of research, optical clearing agents have proved useful in laser-assisted hair and tattoo removal. However, Dr. Khan presented new data using these agents to enhance treatment of scars, wrinkles, melasma, striae distensae and pigmentation in conjunction with fractional resurfacing. She received the Best Overall Clinical Science Award from ASLMS for her research. During her presentation, Dr. Khan highlighted her successful attempts to increase the depth of the microscopic treatment zones created when using the Fraxel laser system. She studied samples of facial skin from 12 people. The skin samples were submerged in an optical clearing agent for 2 hours prior to fractional resurfacing. Following a histologic analysis, Dr. Khan discovered that she was able to achieve a 12% increase in the maximum depth of the microthermal damage zones. At the same time, none of the skin samples had microthermal damage zones that were increased in width or in lateral dimension. This research offers insight into safer and more effective outcomes with laser therapies, and the new concept of optical clearing may have far-reaching benefits in effectively treating many kinds of conditions. Larisa Hubbs Executive Editor lhubbs@hmpcommunications.com