Efficacy of microneedling in treatment of acne scars

Introduction: Microneedling is a relatively new minimally invasive procedure involving superficial and controlled puncturing of the skin by rolling with miniature fine needles.Traditionally used as a collagen induction therapy for skin rejuvenation and facial scars specially acne scars.  Aim of the work: Evaluation of efficacy of microneedling  in treatment of acne scars. Patients and Methods: Ten patients with post acne atrophic facial scars attending the  outpatient clinic of  Dermatology in Sohag University Hospitals between June2014 to September 2017  were offered six sessions of microneedling at an interval of 1 month.They were evaluated monthly and one month after completion of sessions for both efficacy and safety of the procedure. Results: The mean ± SD of the patients' age in the study population were26.900±5.952years old.eight females and two males with mean acne  scars duration ± SD 8.500±6.311 years, 60% of patients had psychological distress from their acne scars. At the end of study duration Out of the ten patients 7(70%) achieved one grade reduction in their Goodman and Baron qualitative grading score while 4 patients (40% ) achieved reduction in their  quantitative ECCA " Echella d'e valuation Clinique des cicatrices d'acne" score with 8.55%  improvement in the ECCA score.  The mean  ECCA score value of V scar started to decrease earlier than U scar , but M scar was fixed up to end of sessions. 50% of patients had good satisfaction, 30% of them had very good satisfaction and only 10% had excellent satisfaction. All treated patients , had adverse events of  temporary erythema,  edema, bleeding, or a serous ooze resolving with crusting or scabbing following each session of microneedling but in 1 patient (10%) aggravation of acne occurred, bacterial infection not occurred in any of our patients. Conclusion: Multiple minimally invasive sessions of skin microneedling is an effective treatment for post-acne atrophic scars with the advantage of being a relatively risk-free, in-office procedure with minimal patient recovery time.