EFFICACY OF MICRO NEEDLING IN PATIENTS WITH POST-ACNE SCARRING

Abstract

Background:

Multiple minimally invasive sessions of skin micro-needling are an effective treatment for post-acne scars as it stimulates the repair processes with the advantage of being a relatively riskfree, in-office procedure with minimal patient recovery time. The study aimed to determine the efficacy of micro-needling for the treatment of patients with post-acne scars presenting to tertiary care
hospitals.

Material and Methods:

It was a Quasi-experimental study conducted at the Department of Dermatology, Sharif Medical City Hospital, Lahore. The study was carried out over a period of six months from 26-05-2019 to 25-11-2019. The sample size of 83 cases was calculated using a 95% confidence level, 10% margin of error and taking an expected percentage of effectiveness of microneedling as 31%. Non-probability consecutive sampling was used.

Results:

Patients ranged between 18-35years of age. Patients with acne scars in grade 3 and grade 4 were enrolled in the study based on Goodman and Baron grading system. As regards baseline grades of acne scars, 45 patients (54.2%) were having grade III and 38 patients (45.8%) had grade IV acne scars. At the end of treatment, 40 patients (88.88%) having grade III scars showed
improvement in their grades whereas 5 patients (11.11%) showed no improvement according to the set definition. There was a total of 38 patients (45.8%) presenting with grade IV acne scars of which 32 patients (84.21%) showed improvement by 2 grades whereas 6 patients
(15.78%) did not meet the desired results.

Conclusion:

The efficacy of micro-needling was found in 72 patients (86.7%)