Outcome of microneedling combined with 35% focal trichloroacetic acid peeling in post acne atrophic scars.

Objective To study the outcome of microneedling combined with 35% focal trichloroacetic acid peeling in post acne atrophic scars. Methods This study was conducted in department of dermatology, unit 1, Jinnah hospital, Lahore. A total of 90 patients with Goodman Baron grade 2, 3 & 4 post acne atrophic scars were included in the study. All patients were treated with microneedling alternating with trichloroacetic acid focal peel via CROSS technique at 2 weekly intervals. Results Combination therapy with microneedling followed by trichloroacetic acid peeling resulted in improvement of 1 grade in 93.3% patients with grade 3 and 4 post acne atrophic scars regardless of the age, gender, duration and type of scar and the baseline grade of scarring. There was statistically no significant difference in the frequencies of improvement across various subgroups of patients based on patient's age (p-value=0.731), gender (p-value=0.461), duration of disease (pvalue= 0.777), type of scar (p-value=0.899) and baseline Goodman and Baron Grade (pvalue= 0.821). Conclusion Combination therapy of microneedling followed by trichloroacetic acid peeling resulted in improvement of 1 grade in 93.3% patients with grade 3 and 4 post acne atrophic scars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]