MONT TREMBLANT, QUE. Objective improvement of atrophic facial acne scars can be achieved with the 1,064-nm Q-switched neodymium:YAG laser, according to recently published study.
"This is one of the few papers that [exist] actually showing objective criteria for a problem that's difficult, sometimes, to visually assess in terms of degree of improvement," Roy Geronemus, M.D., told this newspaper. Dr. Geronemus coauthored the study, which is in press, with Paul Friedman, M.D., who is in private practice in Houston, and Greg Skover, Ph.D., of Johnson & Johnson.
Speaking at a symposium on cutaneous laser surgery sponsored by SkinCare Physicians of Chestnut Hill, Dr. Geronemus outlined the study, which used the Primos 3-D optical imaging system to assess skin topography in 11 patients at baseline, and at 1, 3, and 6 months after their fifth and last laser treatment.
"One of the problems we face in dermatology, and specifically in the area of laser medicine, is that there is a tremendous lack of objective evidence to substantiate the benefits, or lack thereof, of a particular treatment," Dr. Geronemus said.
At midtreatment (1 month after the third treatment), an 8.9% improvement in patients' Ra scores was seen. The Ra score is a measurement of skin smoothness and is calculated by averaging the height of all points of the topographic profile (Arch. Dermatol. 2004;140:133741).
This improvement in Ra score increased to 23% at 1 month after the last treatment and to 32% and then 39% at 3 months and 6 months after the last treatment, said Dr. Geronemus, who is in private practice in New York.
"The continued incremental improvements were an indication of ongoing dermal collagen remodeling long after the last treatment session," he explained at the meeting.
He has no associations with any company involved in these treatments.
