Impact of laser treatment on hypertrophic burn scars in pediatric burn patients

Paediatric patients with hypertrophic burn scars benefit from laser treatment, but this treatment's effectiveness on burn wounds stratified by specific body region and prior burn wound therapy has not been fully evaluated. We performed a single center retrospective study of pediatric burn patients, treated with fractional CO2, with or without pulse dye, laser between 2018-2022. We identified 99 patients treated with 332 laser sessions. Median age at the time of burn injury was 4.0 years (IQR 1.7, 10.0) and 7.1 years (IQR 3.6, 12.2) at the time of first laser treatment. In the acute setting, 55.2 % were treated with dermal substrate followed by autografting, 29.6 % were treated with dermal substrate alone, and 9.1 % underwent autografting alone. Most body regions showed improvement in modified Vancouver Scar Scale (mVSS) score with laser treatment. mVSS scores improved significantly with treatment to the anterior trunk (-1.18, p = 0.01), arms (-1.14, p = 0.003), and legs (-1.17, p = 0.015). Averaging all body regions, the mVSS components of pigmentation (-0.34, p < 0.001) and vascularity (-0.47, p < 0.001), as well as total score (-0.81, p < 0.001) improved significantly. Knowing the variable effectiveness of laser treatment in pediatric burn scars is useful in counseling patients and families pre-treatment.