Xtrac® Excimer Laser

The XTRAC excimer laser treatment system offers psoriasis sufferers many benefits. Depending on the extent and severity of your psoriasis, these can include:

• Effective clearing — generally in 10 or less brief sessions
• Provides long-lasting relief—typically several months free of symptoms
• Quick, easy, painless treatment—sessions last only a few minutes
• Relief without messy creams and daily skin care regimen
• Covered by most major insurance companies

Harnessing the Natural Power for Effective Therapy

Psoriasis sufferers often notice that there is an improvement of their dry, scaly skin in the summer months, especially with exposure to ultraviolet light rays from the sun.

Capitalizing on this phenomenon, in the 1920’s the prestigious Mayo Clinic first introduced UVB “phototherapy” to control psoriasis. Many of the early UVB systems were primitive, time consuming and treated the whole body, including healthy skin, not just the affected area. Today, UVB therapy continues to be a standard treatment. Conventional UVB phototherapy may be used alone or in conjunction with other topical medications such as coal tar or anthralin.

UVB phototherapy has been shown to provide relatively long remission times, but the real quest was to find a way to deliver the UVB in a precise, fast manner that was easy for the physician to use and easy for the patient to undergo, within the convenience of the doctor’s office.

Responding to this need for safe, effective and convenient therapies for skin disorders, the medical engineering and research teams at PhotoMedex worked with leading laser experts, including Dr. Rox Anderson at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, to develop the XTRAC excimer laser using a specific ray of light – 308nm – generated by a xenon chloride molecular energy chamber.

Using a carefully focused beam of light delivered through a sophisticated liquid light guide device, the XTRAC system allows the physician to use the high dose of monochromatic UVB right to the spot of the problem for fast, effective treatment while minimizing the risk of exposure to healthy skin.

Introduced in 2000, the XTRAC is the first FDA market-cleared excimer laser system for the treatment of psoriasis. It is also cleared for treatment of vitiligo and atopic dermatitis.

The XTRAC excimer laser treatment system is the first FDA market-cleared laser treatment for psoriasis. Light years ahead of other treatment methods, XTRAC is designed to provide effective relief from unsightly and sometimes painful psoriatic skin lesions.

What is an excimer laser?

Excimer lasers were introduced to the healthcare field in the early 1980’s for refractive surgery to correct vision. In 1997, Dr. Lajos Kemeny at the University of Szeged, Hungary, first published clinical results on the use of the excimer laser for psoriasis. In 1998, Drs. Rox Anderson and Charles Taylor, leading dermatologists at Harvard University, began investigating excimer laser technology for the treatment of skin conditions.

Since this time, the dermatologists at Mass. General Hospital, and other leading medical institutes, have conducted and published numerous clinical studies demonstrating the safety and efficacy of the XTRAC laser for the treatment of psoriasis and other skin conditions.

Today, thousands of patients in the United States as well as internationally have benefited from treatment with the XTRAC® laser. Numerous studies have shown the dramatic difference that 308nm laser light can make in enhancing patient outcomes, reducing diseased areas and improving quality of life.