Melanie Schulz: Tattoo Removal with Two Lasers
The therapeutic removal of tattoos presents a challenge, because the established therapy with Q-switched lasers is partly limited. To improve the therapy we use a combination of Q-switched (QS) and ablative fractional laser (AFL).
The ablative fractional laser creates microtunnels to enable the pigments to leak through to the surface of the skin, rather than being removed by the lymphatic system without knowing their final destination and its cause on the target organ.
Using the combination of a Q-switched laser followed by an ablative fractional laser, we can confirm a much better outcome.
Reducing the number of treatments to completely remove tattoo pigments, we noticed fewer unwanted side effects and a shortened healing time compared to the commonly used Q-switched laser therapy. Comparing 4 different techniques, we reached the conclusion that the most effective way of laser treatment is to use the Q-switched laser prior to the AFL, and then the QS laser for a second time in one session. Additional QS laser treatments (more than 2 per session) have not shown significant improvement in reducing the number of treatments.