Page 158 - Blog Posts v1

B18 - How long should you leave between laser tattoo removal treatments?
This is an important question but has not been properly studied clinically (to my knowledge). When my research group first developed the Q-switched ruby laser treatment of tattoos in Canniesburn Hospital, Glasgow, in the early 1980s they established that a minimum four-week period was the optimum time between repeat laser sessions.
This became the standard interval time across the planet for many years.
About 10 years later reports that a six-week period yielded ‘better’ results started to arise in a number of countries. After more time, this interval became eight weeks. However, a proper clinical study has not yet been carried out to determine the most appropriate time.
Figure 1: The rate of removal of ‘lasered’ ink appears to increase significantly after phases 1 and 2 of the skin repair process have concluded. At this time the most
important immediate phases of the repair process have completed, leaving time and energy for the less important ink removal part.
So, I approached this from a different stance. I considered the skin repair processes and wondered how laser tattoo removal fitted in with these.
I learned that the repair processes can broken down into four main, overlapping phases:
Figure 2: The timeline of the four phases
1 – Haemostasis – this initial phase minimises blood, and other fluid, losses from the skin, with a rapid influx of platelets, cytokines and hormones. Chemokines are released by
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