Evaluating outcomes of pulsed dye laser therapy combined with intralesional triamcinolone injection after surgical removal of hypertrophic cesarean section scars.

BACKGROUND

Recently, pulsed dye laser (PDL) combined with triamcinolone intralesional injection (TAILI) has been introduced for surgical scar prevention. However, little is known about this procedure's effectiveness in preventing hypertrophic scar following surgical scar removal.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to evaluate the outcome of early intervention using PDL combined with TAILI after surgical removal of hypertrophic cesarean section (CS) scars.

METHODS

The medical records of 35 patients who underwent early intervention using PDL and TAILI after removal of hypertrophic CS scars were retrospectively reviewed. The scars' average Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) scores before scar removal and 3 months after the final treatment were compared.

RESULTS

The patients received 4.23 treatments on average and were followed up for a mean period of 7.74 months. The mean final VSS was 3.11 ± 1.52 and was significantly lower than that of the previous VSS (9.29 ± 1.74, p = 0.000). VSS of the previous CS scar, and the presence or absence of keloid formation in other areas, was associated with treatment outcome (p = 0.003 and 0.008, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Early intervention using PDL combined with TAILI could prevent the recurrence or progression of hypertrophic CS scarring after surgical scar removal.