595nm Pulsed Dye Laser (Vbeam(R)) Treatment of Hypertrophic Scar

Kim, Seung Hyun; Roh, Si Gyun; Chung, Sung Mo; Lee, Nae Ho; Yang, Kyung Moo

Abstract

Hypertrophic scars are relatively common, but they remain very difficult to treat and induce functional and psychologic morbidity. Many treatment modalities have been advocated in the past. But none of these are satisfactory with unpredictable result, long treatment interval and sometimes unacceptable side effects. Recent use of the flashlamp-pumped pulsed-dye laser(585nm) has been shown to be effective in the treatment of various traumatic and surgical scars with improvement in scar texture, color and pliability with minimal side effects. 80 patients with 95 hypertrophic scars which had little response to usual conservative treatment and resulted from trauma, operation, skin graft donor sites, and burns were treated with Vbeam(R)(595nm) pulsed dye laser(Candela Laser Corporation, Wayland, Mass). The mean number of treatment was 2.2. Period of follow-up vary from 2 month to 16 months. The 595nm Pulsed Dye Laser can effectively improve scar pliability and texture and decrease erythema and associated symptoms yielding cosmetically and functionally acceptabel clinical results. Complications such as hypopigmentation, ulcer and infection were not seen.