Abstract
Fractional carbon dioxide (CO(2)) laser therapy has been shown to improve scar contractures following burns. However, the benefits of using other CO(2) laser techniques to treat burn scar contractures are relatively unknown. This pilot study investigated a CO(2) laser technique in which a series of perpendicular "surgical cuts" were created along the contracture. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using the "surgical cuts CO(2) laser technique" in pediatric patients. This study included 12 participants with minor hand burn scar contractures that received one CO(2) laser treatment using the surgical cuts technique. Trained assessors measured contractures pre- and post-laser therapy by assessing range of motion (ROM), digit length, and/or hand-span. All contractures were secondary to contact burns with the mean participant age equal to 5.5 years (SD 3.9). For all participants, at least one of the measured characteristics (ROM, hand-span, and digit length) improved after treatment. This pilot study demonstrated the benefit of using the surgical cuts CO(2) laser technique to treat minor burn scar contractures. Future investigations are needed to further evaluate its effectiveness in comparison to the fractional CO(2) laser therapy technique.