Active FX Laser Skin Resurfacing

Active FX is a trademark of Lumenis Corporation used to describe a treatment with their fractionated CO2 laser system, the Ultrapulse Laser. This was the first fractionated CO2 laser introduced to the market in recent years, and it maintains some distinct advantages over other laser skin resurfacing systems.

The Active FX concept is based on taking the traditional CO2 laser beam, narrowing the spot size, and spacing out the contact points on the skin. By spacing out these treatment zones or "fractionating" the treatment, one leaves untreated "bridges" of skin. These bridges allow the entire area to heal more quickly and with less risk. The treating physician can control the relative size of the bridges by altering the density of the treatment.

An Active FX treatment is usually performed with only a topical anesthetic that is applied to the skin and left in place for 30-45 minutes. Patients may benefit from some oral valium at the time of treatment however this requires that they have a ride home. Occasionally local anesthetic nerve blocks can be performed, allowing more aggressive treatment (higher density treatments).

Recovery time from Active FX depends on the patient's definition of "total recovery." For most this means that they may resume work without being self conscious about their appearance. This may take 5-7 days for most patients. However, most patients have minimal to no pain after the first day. After that, the healing process involves the skin turning moderately red, then slightly brown as the sun-damaged outer layer of skin flakes off. Patients are advised to shower twice daily and keep the skin moist during this time. By day 5-7 the skin is completely healed and slightly red, which can be easily covered with makeup or explained away as a sunburn from the beach.

Results measured in patient satisfaction from Active FX have been uniformly positive in our practice. Every patient obtains notable improvement in skin texture and softness. Nearly every patient obtains significant tightening of the lower eyelid skin as well as near total resolution of "age spots" or moderate sun damage. Wrinkles around the lips require slightly deeper treatment and multiple passes with Active FX and may not resolve completely, but almost always show significant improvement. The newly introduced Deep FX modification shows great promise in resolving these deeper lines with a single treatment.

For the most part, Active FX is a one-time treatment with significant savings to the patient as far as cost and downtime when compared to multiple treatments with Fraxel or IPL which achieve more modest results.

Roy David Amir, MD, FACS
La Jolla Center for Facial Plastic Surgery
(858) 658-0595
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