Reduction of post‐surgical scarring with the use of ablative fractional CO2 lasers: A pilot study using a porcine model

Background and Objective Wound healing inevitably leads to scarring, which leads to functional and cosmetic defects. It is the goal of this study to investigate the immediate use of ablative fractional CO2 lasers to reduce post‐operative scarring secondary to surgical wounds. Study Design/Materials and Methods In this prospective controlled study, 20 surgical incisions were created on each of three pigs. Fifteen of the incisions were treated with an ablative fractional CO2 laser at one of three laser settings. The remaining five incisions served as a control. Punch biopsies were taken post‐operatively over time. Digital photographs were taken of each incisional scar at each time period. Blinded evaluators used a previously verified scoring system to score photographs of the incisional scars taken at the 6 month time period. Results With regards to the comparison between the three individual laser treatment groups and the control, there were no statistically significant effects for treatment (P = 0.40), time (P = 0.48), or for the interaction of time and treatment (P = 0.57). With regards to the visual assessment tool, there were no statistically significant differences between treatments for Overall Appearance (P = 0.21) or for Total Score (P = 0.24). Conclusions In the limited setting of this pilot study, treatment of surgical incisions with ablative fractional CO2 lasers does not significantly lessen scar formation. In addition, photographic analysis was not able to demonstrate a significant difference. Future studies on this topic will need a larger sample size to better answer whether a statistically significant difference may exist. Lasers Surg. Med. 49:122–128, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.