Port wine stain treatments in Cardiff, Newport, Caerphilly, Pontypridd and South Wales.

A port wine stain is a vascular birthmark caused by abnormal development of blood vessels in the skin. A port wine stain is sometimes referred to as a capillary malformation.

The change in the blood vessels is caused by a mutation (change in a gene) occurring early in pregnancy while the baby is developing in the womb. This change in the gene is not inherited (passed on from one generation to the next) and is not known to be related to anything that happened during pregnancy.

There are currently two options for treating port wine stains: laser treatment and cosmetic camouflage.

Laser treatment, with a pulsed dye laser, is currently the treatment of choice for fading a port wine stain.

What is laser treatment and how does it work?

Laser treatment uses a narrow beam of light that is absorbed by the red colour in the blood vessels in the port wine stain. This is called selective photothermolysis, which means that the specific area (selective) of tissue containing blood vessels is treated (lysis) using light (photo) that in turn produces heat (thermo).

Each time the laser beam touches the skin, it treats a small area only a few millimetres across.

Call us today if you would like further information on treatments for Port Wine Stains on 02920 795775.