AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR LASER MEDICINE AND SURGERY TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING DALLAS, TEXAS MARCH 31-APRIL 4, 2004 ABSTRACTS

Skin Laser & Surgery Specialists of NY/NJ, New York, NJ Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY Unilever Research and Development, Edgewater, NJ

Background and Objectives: Despite high patient satisfaction, subjective clinical improvement after non-ablative treatments are often difficult to document. Varied objective tests have been used to quantify results. The purpose of this study was to compare a variety of objective measurements that document efficacy after non-ablative laser treatment.

Study Design/Materials and Methods: Twelve subjects received 5 full-face 1,320 nm Nd:YAG non-ablative laser treatments. All subjects were followed for 6 months after treatment. Objective improvement analyses were made of changes in skin firmness with balistometric analysis; improvement in skin texture with both full face digital screening and optical 3D profilometry; and changes in structural changes with protein analyzes.

Results: Significant improvement in skin firmness and elasticity was seen with balistomteric evaluation. Facial scanner analysis showed improvement both in depth of facial rhytides, with individual improvement up to 60%, and in length of rhytides with individual improvement up to 100%. Optical 3D profilometric analyses showed both improvement in depth of rhytides,. with individual improvement up to 28%, and microtexture with individual improvement up to 22%. Finally, post non-ablative treatment protein analyzes showed increases in procollagen I, fillagrin and proliferating cell nuclear antigen, all markers of wound repair.

Conclusions: A wide variety of objective analyzes confirm the subjective changes seen after non-ablative treatment