Improvement of facial acne scars by the 585 nm flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser.

BACKGROUND

Hypertrophic or erythematous scars (or both) have remained notoriously difficult to treat because of their persistence or recurrence after traditional therapies. Recently, the 585 nm flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser has been shown to be effective in treating similar traumatic and surgical scars.

OBJECTIVE

Our purpose was to determine the effectiveness of the 585 nm flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser in the specific treatment of facial acne scars.

METHODS

Twenty-two patients with erythematous or hypertrophic facial acne scars were included in this Investigational Review Board-approved study. The 585 nm flashlamp-pumped pulsed-dye laser was used to treat scars on half of each patient's face, with the contralateral side used as control. Baseline, 6-week, and 6-month posttreatment photographs, erythema measurements made with reflectance spectrometry, and skin texture analyses were obtained from laser-irradiated and untreated scars. Clinical analyses were performed independently by two "blinded" observers.

RESULTS

Significant clinical improvement was observed in laser-irradiated acne scars compared with the untreated (control) scars after one or two 585 nm pulsed-dye laser treatments. Erythema measurements and skin texture analyses of laser-treated scars approximated those obtained in the adjacent normal skin.

CONCLUSION

The 585 nm flashlamp-pumped pulsed-dye laser can significantly improve the clinical appearance of erythematous or hypertrophic facial acne scars.