Pulsed dye laser versus long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser in the treatment of hypertrophic scars and keloid: A comparative randomized split-scar trial.

INTRODUCTION

Keloids and hypertrophic scars are benign fibrous growths that occur after trauma or wounding of the skin and present a major therapeutic problem.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of pulsed dye laser (PDL) versus Nd:YAG laser in hypertrophic scar and keloid.

METHODS

Twenty patients with hypertrophic scars and keloid were included in this prospective, randomized, split-scar study. Half of each scar was randomized to treatment with a 595-nm PDL and the contralateral half with the 1064-nm Nd:YAG. Each patient received 6 laser treatment sessions at 1-month intervals. The scars were evaluated at baseline and one month after the last laser session using the Vancouver scar scale (VSS).

RESULTS

One month after the last laser treatment, final total VSS analysis of treated sites by PDL and long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser revealed significant improvements (p < 0.001), whereas the average percentage of improvement in the total VSS was 55.14% for PDL and 65.44% for Nd:YAG laser. However, there were no statistically significant differences between PDL- and long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser-treated sites for total VSS (p = 0.074).

LIMITATIONS: This was a single-center non-controlled trial, which included a small number of patients and subjective outcome measures.

CONCLUSION

PDL and long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser treatments for keloid and hypertrophic scar provide significant improvement with insignificant difference between both modalities.