Beauty
Botulinum and laser together to heal pathological scars more effectively
Milan – Botulinum, injected with the help of laser, is an excellent ally to treat more effectively pathological scars, those that tend to spread to the healthy skin that surrounds them. Matteo Tretti Clementoni, plastic and reconstructive surgeon with a specialization in the use of electro-medical lasers and Aiteb member, spoke at the 24th World Congress of Dermatology in Milan with a report on the use of laser together with botulinum toxin for the treatment of keloids, or scarring lesions that form on the skin as a result of trauma, abrasion, injury, burns or piercing.
The doctor starts from a premise: “Botulinum toxin has the advantage of hindering the proliferation of fibroblasts in areas of the skin damaged by scars, and is therefore able to clinically improve these areas. But we also know that the same botulinum toxin, if injected into the healthy skin, does not cause alterations and is therefore safe even if there is an imperfection in its administration”.
For the treatment of scarring generally the most used drug is cortisone, but scientific studies, cited by the doctor at the Congress, have shown that cortisone combined with botulinum toxin improves its effectiveness. Despite encouraging results, there is still an objective difficulty in administering botulinum, which is done by means of injections, in these cases: the cause is the too solid consistency of the keloids that come to “bend” the needle of the injection.
“To facilitate the treatment we can use lasers – explains Tretti Clementoni – which can be used to make small holes of different depths in the area to be treated in which you can apply the drug, the fluid spreads and is absorbed more easily. This is a technique, called LADD, laser-assisted drug delivery and we are experimenting with very satisfactory results.
