Epidermal heating during laser-induced photothermolysis of port wine stains: modeling melanosomal heating after dynamic cooling of the skin surface

The clinical objective in treatment of port wine stains is to maximize thermal damage to the abnormal blood vessels without introducing thermal damage to the normal overlying epidermis. The rationale of dynamic cooling is to protect the epidermis from thermal damage by selectively cooling this layer down immediately before delivering the laser pulse. This work discusses the thermal dynamics of epidermal cooling by milliseconds cryogen spurts and melanosomal heating by the laser pulse.