Virendra Vijay Saoji1, Mrinmayee Mukund Ganoje2
BACKGROUND
Atrophic scars results from any inflammatory skin disease causing sufficient damage to epidermis and dermal collagen. The most common causes of atrophic scars are severe nodular or nodulocystic acne. Main morphological types of atrophic post-acne scars are icepick scars, superficial or deep boxcar scars and rolling scars and various modalities of treatments are available.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Total of 50 cases were enrolled in study with grade 2 and 3 acne scars according to Goodman and Baron qualitative scar grading scale treated randomly selected modality of treatment by envelope method followed by alternate modality of treatment with 25 cases of each modality. Patients were selected with the predetermined inclusion and exclusion criterias. Patient followed up monthly after initiation of therapy for a period of six months.
RESULTS
All patients in Dermaroller group improved of which 88% improved by at least one grade and 12% patients showed improvement of the scars by 2 grades in Goodman and Baron qualitative scar grading scale. All the patients in fractional CO2 laser group showed improvement, of which 80% improved by 1 grade and rest 20% by another 2 grades in Goodman and Baron qualitative scar grading scale.
CONCLUSION
It is important to realise that a typical patient has scars of different morphological types and grades and it is difficult to treat all these scar types satisfactorily with a single treatment option. However, of all the treatment options available to treat post-acne scars, fractional photothermolysis is probably the only monotherapy that offers the highest degree of scar amelioration and patient satisfaction. On the other hand, Dermaroller is a simple, inexpensive office method of treatment for management of facial acne scars with relatively less downtime, but less satisfactory results as compared to fractional CO2 laser.
KEYWORDS
Acne Scars, CO2 Laser, Microneedling.