Once your child has been registered, you and your child will be taken to a holding area where his or her vital signs will be taken. You will then meet with the anesthesiologist and your child’s doctor. The pediatric anesthesiologist — a doctor who specializes in anesthesia for children — will give the medications that will make your child sleep during the surgery. At this time, you will be asked to sign a consent form and may ask any questions about the procedure.
Once questions are answered and the operating room is prepared, your child will be taken into the operating room and given an anesthetic to make him or her go to sleep. If your child is not having general anesthesia, the doctor will apply the anesthetic cream to the area being treated.
Older children who are not having general anesthesia will be given eye protection similar to goggles so the laser light does not harm their eyes. Once this is done or when your child is asleep, the procedure will begin.
- While on the operating room table, your child will have a seat belt across his or her lap for safety.
- The doctor will hold a wand-like instrument against the area being treated.
- The doctor will “pulse” the laser on and off, as if turning a flashlight on and off, at a selected frequency.
- The pulses of the laser might feel similar to having a rubber band snapped against the skin. This feeling is more startling than painful.
- The number of pulses in a treatment depends on the size of the birthmark and varies from patient to patient. Larger areas, such as those involving an entire leg or arm, may receive up to 1000 pulses.
Children’s takes every precaution to make sure your child is safe. Risks involved in the pulsed dye laser treatment include:
- The laser power being set too high, causing scarring. To avoid scarring, the doctor will set the laser to a low power setting during your child’s first treatment so that he or she can check your child’s reaction.
- After the first treatment, there might not be a change in the appearance of the port wine stain. If this happens, the doctor will change the setting of the laser for the next treatment.