1. Who can easily suffer from the nevus of Ota?  

The nevus of Ota and the nevus of Ito mostly occur on colored race such as the Oriental and black people, especially the female ones.

2. Where is the nevus of Ota commonly found?

They are commonly found in the periorbital region, forehead, zygomatic, temporal region and wings of the nose with its color brown and bluish gray.

3. Is the nevus of Ota a hereditary disease?

According to the clinical data, the heritability of the nevus of Ota in clinical practice is 50%, and the genetic ratio of the nevus in the female population is relatively high.

4. Will the nevus of Ota relapse?

With a large amount of clinical observation, the nevus of Ota is unlikely to relapse. Since most of the nevi are benign lesions, there is little recurrence of them.

5. When is the nevus of Ota mostly found?

About 2/3 of the people suffer from the nevus of Ota upon their birth. Some people get the nevus at the age of 10 to 20, some have it when they’re elder while others suffer from it during pregnancy or after encountering some local injury. The nevus can get deeper and larger when people are in their adolescence.  

6. What is the best age for a kid to treat the nevus of Ota?

Generally kids can take the treatment as long as they have been 3 months old. And the earlier they receive the treatment, the better effects they’ll get as they have quicker skin recovery.  

7. What are the complications of the nevus of Ota?

a. It can be aggravated by fatigue, pregnancy, menstruation, or lack of sleep; A few cases can be combined with ipsilateral glaucoma, cataract, malignant melanoma and conductive deafness.

b.It can be combined with persistent Mongolian spots.

c.It can be concurrent with the nevus of Ito, blue nevus and hemangioma.

d.The anterior chamber angle can lead to glaucoma due to pigment hyperplasia.

e.It can be combined with nerve deafness and eyeball regressive syndrome.

f.It can also be combined with ipsilateral congenital cataract and upper limb atrophy.

g.There is very little possibility of malignant transformation of the nevus. If there is the possibility, it is often combined with iris choroid, malignant melanoma or malignant blue nevus.

8. Will the nevus of Ota vanish by itself?

Generally, it won’t disappear by itself. Most of the nevi will get larger and thicker with the kids’ growing up while several of them will get lessened over time. So it’s the best to treat the nevi by laser as early as possible.

9. Which is the best season to treat the nevus of Ota?

Actually it’s the best to treat it in spring, autumn and winter as the UV rays are relatively weak then, pigmentation will be lighter and postoperative nursing can be easier. But because many patient with severe nevus of Ota need to take more than 3 courses of treatment, there’s not a clear confinement on season for treatment theoretically. Patients need to take the treatment all year round. 

10. Does it hurt if patients with the nevus of Ota receive laser treatment?

When receiving the laser treatment, patients will have slight tingling sensation, which can be tolerated by ordinary people. If children are afraid of the pain, anesthetics can be applied on the treatment sites to alleviate the pain.

11. How many courses of treatment are required to treat the nevus of Ota by laser? And how often is the treatment conducted?

Normally 3 to 5 times of treatment are required. 2 to 3 times of treatment can be enough to treat the nevus if its color is light while no less than 6 times of treatment will be needed once the nevus is of dark color.  

The treatment can be finished in one hour and shall be taken once 3 months to once 6 months.

12. What are the considerations after the laser treatment for nevus of Ota?
a. After removing the nevus by laser, there will be slight burning sensation on treatment sites and slight redness on the skin, which are normal reaction.If necessary, take a local cold compress to relieve or eliminate the red heat.
b. Keep the treatment sites clean to avoid infection and friction.
c. Let the scars on treatment sites peel off by themselves. Do not remove them with hands, otherwise there will be pigmentation.
d. After peeling of the scars, there may be temporary local pigmentation. Use sunscreen and spot removal products to treat it.   
e. Avoid spicy food.