Laser Surgery
Lasers are used for a variety of purposes from removal of skin tumors such as sarcoids to throat surgery performed through an endoscope.
Equine Sarcoid
Equine sarcoids are an aggressive type of skin tumor commonly found around the ears, eyes, head, neck and sometimes even the legs. There are several different types of sarcoids - occult, verrucous, nodular, fibroblastic and a mix of these. Sarcoids are suspected to be caused by bovine papilloma virus, they are a locally invasive benign tumor (ie: does not metastasize/spread to other areas).
 Large Fibroblastic Sarcoid |
 Typical Occult Sarcoid |
Sarcoids have been proven to be treated most effectively with removal by surgery or laser therapy or by performing cisplatin injections. Sometimes a combination of the two is recommended to get the best response. Cisplatin is a chemotherapy agent which has to be injected every two weeks for four treatments to be effective. Alternatively, there are cisplatin beads which can be placed near the tumor and usually one or two bead treatment are enough to cause the sarcoid to regress. Cure rates of over 96% can be achieved when the procedure is properly performed.
Recently, a new product has been used to treat sarcoids which is a topical cream called 'Aldera' (drug name = Imiquimod) and is applied twice a week every other week. Aldera seems to be having some good results - approximately 75% of tumors respond to the treatment. However, the downsides are the lack of overall response by extremely large tumors and that long-term follow-up results are still lacking in the research.
Recently, a new product has been used to treat sarcoids which is a topical cream called 'Aldera' (drug name = Imiquimod) and is applied twice a week every other week. Aldera seems to be having some good results - approximately 75% of tumors respond to the treatment. However, the downsides are the lack of overall response by extremely large tumors and that long-term follow-up results are still lacking in the research.
 Nodular/Fibroblastic Sarcoid in Ear |
 Ear Sarcoid Post Laser Removal |
