Treatment of striae albae with 1,550 nm Er: Glass vs. CO2 fractional laser: A self-controlled study

Yanfei Luo; Yan Lin; Meiling Wang; Xiaoyuan Gao; Xiaodong Liu; Huaxu Liu

doi:10.3389/fmed.2022.1060815

Treatment of striae albae with 1,550 nm Er: Glass vs. CO₂ fractional laser: A self-controlled study

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Jan 10:9:1060815. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.1060815. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yanfei Luo¹, Yan Lin², Meiling Wang³, Xiaoyuan Gao², Xiaodong Liu², Huaxu Liu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, Hainan General Hospital, Haikou, Hainan, China.
² Shandong Provincial Hospital for Skin Diseases, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China.
³ Department of Plastic Surgery, Third People's Hospital of Guizhou, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of fractional CO₂ laser and 1,550 nm Er: glass laser in the treatment for the patients with striae albae.

Methods: The female adults with striae albae in the abdomen for at least 12 months were recruited. After informed consent obtained, the patient received three treatments at 2-month intervals. The lesions on the left abdomen were treated with 10,600 nm CO₂ fractional laser and right side treated with 1,550 nm Er: glass fractional laser. The pictures were taken before each visit and 3 months after the final treatment. The criteria for the evaluations using a quartile grading scale were excellent (76-100%), good (51-75%), fair (26-50%), poor (1-25%), and no improvement (0%). The safety and efficacy of the two lasers were independently evaluated using before and after photographs by two dermatologists. In addition, the self-reports to investigate the pain and satisfaction from patients were also recorded.

Results: Totally, 27 cases were recruited, and 25 patients completed the treatments and follow-up. The excellent and good results (improvement of 51-100%) were achieved on the right abdomen in 84% of the patients, while 48% on the left site (p < 0.05). Hyper-pigmentation was seen in 20% of the patients assessed on the left abdomen and only in 8% on the right abdomen. During the treatments, average score of the pain on the right abdomen was 5.41 ± 2.13, which was higher than that on the left (4.19 ± 2.12) (p < 0.001). No permanent hyper-pigmentation was found on the both sides. Considering the whole treatments, the patients favored the modality used on the right side (80 vs. 68%, p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Compared with CO₂ fractional laser, 1,550 nm Er: glass fractional laser therapy provides the significantly better clinical outcomes and fewer side effects in the treatment of striae albae.

Limitations: The sample size and follow-up time were limited.

Keywords: 10,600 nm CO2 fractional laser; abdomen; comparative study; non-ablative 1,550-nm Er: glass fractional laser; striae albae.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Department of Science and Technology of Shandong Province (2018GSF118030) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62273329).