Clinical efficacy of fractional carbon dioxide laser in treatment of hypertrophic scars at different stages

Objective To compare the clinical efficacy of fractional carbon dioxide laser in the treatment of hypertrophic scars at different stages. Methods Forty-five patients with 6-~8-month hypertrophic scars who met our inclusion criteria and were admitted to our department from February 2018 to June 2018 were recruited in this study. They were divided into control group (n=12), half-year group (n=15) and 1-year group (n=18). Each patient was treated with conventional treatments (stress and medication), and the patients in the control group were not treated with laser, those in the half-year group and 1-year group were treated with carbon dioxide laser from scar formation for half year (at admission) and for 1 year (half year after admission), respectively. Laser radiation were performed every 3 months. The scars were scored by Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) at admission and 24 months after scar formation. The times of treatment, loss of working, incidence of side effects and patient satisfaction were also recorded. Results VSS score, scar thickness score and scar softness score were significantly higher in the control group than the half-year group and 1-year group (P 0.05). Compared with the 1-year group, the half-year group had obviously higher times of laser radiation (P 0.05). The patient satisfaction rate was notably higher in the half-year group and the 1-year group than that of control (P < 0.05). Conclusion It is safe and effective to treat hypertrophic scar with fractional carbon dioxide laser in half and 1 year after scar formation, and there are no obvious differences in the efficacy between the 2 time points