Laser and Light Treatment in Asian Skin (LLTAS)

Dear Readers,

As the Chairman of the “Conventional & Contemporary in Laser Medicine and Surgery”

(CCLMS) initiative, it is with great pleasure that I write to welcome you to this outstanding text book, Laser and Light Treatment in Asian Skin: Practical Approaches, crystalizing the experience of Korea’ leading laser and light practitioners in treating a vast range of cutaneous disorders in Asian skin.

As we all know, the darker Asian skin types represent a special case when cutaneous lesions are targeted, simply because of the propensity of these skin types to form postinflammatory hyperpigmentation following any treatment causing undue inflammation, particularly at the dermoepidermal junction.

Special care and precise techniques are therefore called for, based on a sound understanding of laser-tissue interaction in the darker skin type. The CCLMS Committee is very proud to stand behind this keynote publication. Korea is renowned for her pool of expert surgeons, and the manufacture of some of the very best laser systems in the world for these experts to practice with. Sadly, the vast storehouse of knowledge remains often locked in Korea and her near environs, sometimes by the simple fact of publication in the Korean language, but often because Korean surgeons are very shy of their English language abilities, even though they may be fluent English speakers.

It was because of this that the CCLMS Committee got together and this volume was discussed, then definitively planned, and now it has been published. The range of topics herein has something for everyone. Furthermore, we all know that Asian skin is no longer limited to Asia, with a large diaspora of Asians in every major country worldwide. This spreading of the Asian skin gene brings problems for clinicians in these overseas regions whose patients are Asian, or of Asian descent, because of the inherent potential for PIH formation. A patient might present with melasma in Australia, for instance, who appears to be a Fitzpatrick skin type II. However, on history taking, it turns out she is third generation Asian.

This means that the usual skin type II treatment regimens might well induce PIH, because the skin is basically still a type III or even IV. This excellent book is therefore not just intended for clinicians in Asia, although it will still find a place on the bookshelf here as a powerful treatment reference: the book is aimed more at those overseas surgeons who encounter Asian skin type patients in their practice, and may be at a loss as to how to treat them safely and effectively.

I feel it will represent an invaluable guide for these circumstances, written as it is by the leading specialists here in Korea, whose expertise is freely shared with our brother and sister colleagues worldwide.

Please enjoy reading this wide-ranging textbook, either as a prelude to treating patients of one of the Asian skin types, as a reference volume, or simply just for pleasure, to enhance your knowledge and broaden your treatment techniques, even in non-Asian skin types. Thank you for purchasing Laser and Light Treatment in Asian Skin: Practical Approaches, and I am sure you will find it very useful.