Destruction of Fungal Nail Dermatophytes Using a Novel 650-microsecond Pulsed Nd:YAG 1064nm Laser

Marc Garfield, DPM, Podiatry, Williamsburg, VA

Published at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Podiatric Medical Association

This brief study indicates that nails treated thoroughly with a 1064nm Nd:YAG laser will not grow dermatophytes on DTM auger, whereas the same toenail sampled from the same patient just prior to 1064nm Nd:YAG treatment would grow colonies within 2-4 weeks from the date of sampling. The implications to this are that laser plays an integral role in eliminating nail fungus by damaging the susceptible representations of the organism.

In this limited study one cannot exclude the effect of laser treatment on fungal growth affecting the nail plate and bed. All 4 plates demonstrated growth of fungus from the toenail specimen before being treated with the laser and no growth up to 6 weeks after the same toenail was treated on the same day.