Fractional CO₂ laser therapy for cesarean scar under the guidance of multiple evaluation methods: A retrospective study

Abstract

The cesarean section rate is reported to be 25.3% at a tertiary hospital in Sydney, which increases from 18.7% in 1989-1994 to 30.4% in 2010-2016. 1 Irrespective of the complications, the incision scar of cesarean is the greatest source of annoyance for mothers. Various treatments have been introduced to satisfy the maternal demand for scar therapy, including suture technique, physical therapy, and steroid injection. Of them, laser therapy is promising in the treatment for incision scar. Nowadays, numerous reports have focused on the laser application, which has been approved to be promoted in clinical application. Typically, fractional CO 2 laser therapy is the most common choice. New collagen fibers are observed in the dermis after fractional CO 2 laser therapy, which are arranged in a more organized and parallel fashion. 2 Nonetheless, there are still shortcomings in clinical practice. In addition to various modes and setting parameters, the diverse evaluation methods may also lead to the controversial results. Therefore, aiming to offset the disadvantages of each evaluation method, multiple evaluation methods were jointly adopted in this

Skin Wound Tension Reduction Device Combined with Ablative Fractional Carbon Dioxide Laser to Reduce Scar Formation After Excision of Pediatric Facial Skin Lesions: A Prospective Cohort Study

“…One month after the first and third CO2-AFL treatment, also at 2 and 6 months after the surgery, the Vancouver scar scale (VSS) 19 and the University of North Carolina 4P Scar Scale (UNC4P) 20 of patients were assessed by 2 independent evaluators. The VSS assessed 4 variables: pigmentation, height/thickness, pliability, and vascularity.…”

CO2 Laser for Esthetic Healing of Injuries and Surgical Wounds with Small Parenchymal Defects in Oral Soft Tissues

“…With respect to appearance, studies of scar healing, such as those using the Vancouver Scar Scale or ultrasound measurement, have demonstrated improvements in the hardness [10,14], thickness [11,16] and flexibility and elasticity [10,14] of scars. In studies of motor function at scar sites [12], studies using the Patient Scar Assessment Questionnaire showed improvements in appearance and scar awareness [10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

“…Recently, the effectiveness of CO 2 lasers (a fractional CO 2 laser, in particular) for the treatment of epithelial scars from trauma, surgical wounds and acne was reported in clinical studies using biopsy samples [5][6][7][8][9], in studies using a scar scale or a visual analog scale [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] and in basic studies using experimental animals [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”