A Systematic Review of the Comparison Between Needling (Rf-Needling, Meso-Needling, and Micro-Needling) and Ablative Fractional Lasers (Co2, Erbium Yag) in the Treatment of Atrophic and Hypertrophic Scars Publisher Pubmed



Nobari NN¹ ; Tabavar A¹ ; Sadeghi S^{1, 2} ; Dehghani A¹ ; Kalantari Y³ ; Ghassemi M¹ ; Atefi N¹ ; Goodarzi A¹ Show Affiliations
Source: Lasers in Medical Science Published:2023

Abstract

The aim of this study is to compare needling (RF-needling, meso-needling, micro-needling) and ablative fractional lasers (CO2, erbium-YAG) in the treatment of atrophic and hypertrophic scars in a systematic review. The database was searched, and 10 articles were selected that were relevant in terms of content, topic, and purpose and met the inclusion criteria. Of all the articles reviewed in this study, there were 2 randomized split-face trials (20%), 1 controlled nonrandomized trial (10%), 1 controlled randomized phase III clinical trial (10%), 1 prospective trial (10%), 1 prospective nonrandomized open-label trial (10%), and 1 randomized comparative trial (10%), with the type of study not reported in 3 articles. We used Endnote X8 to review the articles and extract data. After review, the studies were analyzed and categorized. No statistically significant difference was found between the two methods, laser and micro-needling, in the treatment of atrophic and hypertrophic scars in 60% of the articles studied, and both showed significant improvement (70% or more improvement to complete response). Significant improvement was noted in 20% of the studies reviewed for the laser and micro-needling treatment methods. The results of this study show that needling and ablative fractional lasers are tolerable and safe procedures with no significant difference in the treatment of skin scars in sixty percent of the studies. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature.