As many of you who have been following my online diary know, since early 2002 I have been receiving fairly regular laser treatment (3x/year) using Candela's Vbeam under the watchful eye of Dr. Paul Friedman of DermSurgery Associates. In the last several treatments I did not see any noticeable fading and began taking a wait-and-see approach until laser technology caught up with my PWS. The recovery time has also exacted a psychological toll on me making it harder and harder to get motivated for the next treatment.

Recently I began noticing some glowing testimonials about Cynosure's new Cynergy laser from people in our newsgroup who, like me, hadn't experienced any improvement in their PWS using the gold standard PDL (pulse dye laser).

The Cynergy employs two lasers: the PDL and Nd:Yag. While it is not the first laser out there to combine this dual-approach in one package, it is the first that can employ both lasers at the SAME time during a treatment. It is this approach, which Cynosure calls "multiplexing", that supposedly offers synergistic advantages for treating stubborn port wine stains. That said, Cynosure's literature does recommend using just the PDL until no further advantage is seen.

Cynosure has supplied us with a FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) PDF (you will need Adobe Reader installed). I also spoke to Paul Gianes in Marketing at Cynosure about the differences between the Cynergy and Candela's newest PDL model, the Perfecta. He said,

"In summary, the Perfecta is definitely an improvement from their (Candela's) previous V-Beam model (they also now have an Aesthetica and Platinum, which are lower models than the Perfecta) ...the Cynergy, which has both the “V-Star” and the Nd:YAG in one box, has MultiPlex, which allows both lasers to fire sequentially. This creates a whole other category of therapy."

Cynosure has arranged for me to receive a treatment in Dallas on July 7, 2006 from Dr. Martin Kassir of Mona Lisa Dermatology. While we will not treat my eyelid, I plan to ask Dr. Kassir to treat a small telengactesia on my chin (which has stubbornly resisted several treatments from the Vbeam) as well as my PWS. Post-treatment Cynosure claims little to no downtime since lower energies are used thus little to no purpura and swelling.

I look forward to reporting on my experience in Part 2 of this story which will appear in our next newsletter. In the meantime I am trying to stay out of the sun (difficult in Texas this time of the year).