Real World Dermatology: Evaluating the Safety of Combination Laser Procedures in a Single Clinic Session

Studies show it is safe to have multiple sessions of single laser treatment over an appropriate time period, which allows for the skin to heal between treatments. Waiting to have several sessions may not be realistic for every patient. Physicians may combine laser treatments into a single session to accommodate for patient convenience and to achieve cosmetic improvement faster. Although individual laser therapies are reported to have minimal side effects, few studies explore the safety of multiple laser treatments in a single session.

This study is a retrospective chart review from a single-physician patient pool. Patients who received 1 laser treatment in a single session were compared to those who received 2 or more laser treatments in a single session. Patients were evaluated for treatment type and safety, measured by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE). The CTCAE is a validated severity scale (1-5) where 1 represents minimal adverse events and 5 represents death. Adverse event scores were acquired from follow-up visits, messages through the electronic health record, or follow-up phone calls.

Over a 12-month period, 89 patients qualified for the study with 152 sessions recorded: 116 had 1 laser treatment and 36 had 2 or more laser treatments in a single session. All but 1 patient scored a 1 on the CTCAE, the other, a 2.

This study suggests there is no difference in adverse events from a single laser treatment vs 2 or more laser treatments in a single session. J Drugs Dermatol. 2022;21(11):1181-1184. doi:10.36849/JDD.6766.