Carbon dioxide laser vaporization and curettage in the treatment of large or multiple superficial basal cell carcinomas

Many of the standard forms of therapy for large or multiple superficial basal cell carcinomas are limited by significant postoperative pain, excessive scarring, and prolonged wound healing time. Combining traditional curettage with carbon dioxide laser vaporization creates a procedure that allows excellent visualization, due to the bloodless surgical field produced by the laser, minimal nonspecific thermal damage, rapid healing, and diminished postoperative pain. In addition, the speed and ease with which this procedure can be performed allow successful treatment of many lesions in a single outpatient session. We wish to report our results using this technique for the treatment of 52 patients with 370 superficial basal cell carcinomas.