Burn Scars Treatment Using Ablative Fractional Carbon Dioxide Laser in Sudanese

Abstract

Skin scars develop following different causes, mainly burns, trauma, surgery or pathological condition. The objective of present work is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ablative fractional CO2 laser resurfacing in burn scars in the skin of color represented by Sudanese patients. Six patients (4 males and 2 females, aged 12-50 years) with skin phototype V and V1 with burn scars were treated with three sessions of CO2 laser, on an average of 4-week interval. The laser equipment used in the study was (Dreampulse CO2 laser system, manufactured by Daeshin Enterprise CO. LTD, Seoul, Korea). A single pass was performed using following parameters; 12.5-20 mJ/cm2, with density setting of 5% to 15%. Objective and subjective assessments were obtained at baseline and at 6 months after the final treatment. All patients showed clinical improvement in their scars. After the treatments, pain, itch, erythema and hyperpigmentation was improved. Surface smoothness and skin tension significantly improved. The adverse effects were those of immediate pain and discomfort in the first week of laser sessions. Ablative Fractional CO2 laser was effective and safe for the treatment of burn scars appearance, including measures such as pigmentation, vascularity, pliability, and thickness, in the skin of color, represented by Sudanese.