The Efficacy of Combination Therapy in Atrophic Scars

There are more than 100 million patients who develop scar formation caused by various factors, such as post-inflammatory acne and trauma (1). They often have physical, aesthetic, psychological, and social barriers. Scar tissue is naturally a stage of wound healing. Abnormal wound healing produces a spectrum of scar tissue types such as atrophic, hypertrophic, and keloid scars (2).

Atrophic scars are dermal depressions, which are commonly caused by the destruction of collagen following inflammatory process. This permanent disfiguring sequelae correlates with the duration of pathology, severity of lesion, and delay in therapy (3).

Treatment of atrophic acne scars remains a therapeutic challenge, yet there is no standard option as the most effective treatment (4). A range of possible options has been investigated including surgical techniques (subcision, non-ablative laser treatment, resurfacing techniques (ablative laser treatment, dermabrasion), and injection or dermal fillers or fat, and a combination of two or more modalities (5).

Ultrasound is a unique non-invasive and non-radiating medical imaging tool in the investigation of dermatological diseases by providing detailed anatomic and physiologic data of skin lesions and deeper soft tissue changes. Lesion size in three dimensions-lengths, width, and depth, morphology, the detailed anatomic information provided by sonography is useful to assessment of effect of different types of treatment modality to improve atrophic scar and avoid invasive assessment tools as punch biopsy for histopathological examination (6)