Medical Needling: Effect on Moisture and Transepidermal Water Loss of Mature Hypertrophic Burn Scars

Abstract

BACKGROUND Burn scars remain a serious psychological and physiological problem for affected people. Clinical studies and scientific research have already shown that medical needling improves the scar quality in terms of skin elasticity and erythema. At the same time, patients are confronted with a low-risk therapy and face comparatively less postoperative complications. OBJECTIVE The goal of our study was to examine the influence of medical needling on the skin moisture and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) of hypertrophic dry scars. Therefore, 20 patients, of an average age of 34.63 years, with deep second- and third-degree burn scars have been treated. METHODS Medical needling is performed using a roller covered with needles of 3-mm length. The needling device is rolled over the scar in three directions: vertically, horizontally, and diagonally in order to create as many puncture channels as possible. The puncturing leads to multiple micro-wounds and intradermal bleeding, which evokes the post-needling regeneration cascade. The patients were followed up for 12 months postoperatively. The results have been evaluated by means of objective as well as subjective measurement methods. RESULTS The objective measures show that medical needling influences epidermal thickness and improves the epidermal barrier function at a molecular level. Outcomes are marked by a measurable increase in skin moisture and a reduction in TEWL. CONCLUSION Medical needling seems to be a promising approach for the treatment of mature hypertrophic burn scars with a focus on skin moisture and TEWL.