Dr Andrea C Issler-Fisher

Burns Unit, Concord Repatriation General Hospital

The introduction of ablative fractional CO2 lasers (CO2-AFL) for burn scar management shows very promising results. Whilst recent studies have focused on objective scar outcomes following CO2-AFL treatment, to date no data on patient subjective factors such as quality of life are available. In this presentation, results of our treatment cohort will be presented. Multiple objective and subjective variables, such as scar assessment scores, pruritus, neuropathic pain, as well as burn specific quality of life were evaluated, and all reveal statistically significant improvements following laser treatment. Further, we will present our treatment protocol, which has been developed over the last 2 years.

Finally, some illustrative cases will be presented.