Laser therapy of verrucous epidermal naevi

Forty-three patients with verrucous epidermal naevi were treated either with argon-laser coagulation or with carbon-dioxide laser vaporization. With the argon laser, very good to acceptable results could be achieved in 85% of patients with 'soft', papillomatous lesions. In 'hard', keratotic naevi the argon laser proved ineffective. In some of these cases CO2-laser treatment was effective, whereas generally there was a tendency to hypertrophic scar formation with this laser. As other therapeutic modalities for epidermal naevi are either insufficient or not applicable in widespread lesions, we feel that laser treatment is a valuable therapeutic alternative.