CO<sub>2</sub> laser resurfacing for burn and traumatic scars of the hand and upper extremity
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background Scar formation is a normal part of the proliferative phase in wound healing where collagen is remodelled to better approximate normal skin. When collagen is not effectively redistributed, excessive scarring may occur. Recently, CO2 laser has emerged as an adjunct in improving scar quality via remodelling and redistribution of dermal collagen fibres. Due to the paucity of literature related to its use in the hands and upper extremities, we created a study to examine its effects on hypertrophic scars focused on the hands and upper extremities. Methods Patients treated with CO2 laser for hypertrophic scars of the hand and upper extremity were included. The Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) and Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS) were used to assess the progression of scar quality. Unpaired t-tests were performed to determine statistical difference between pre- and post-treatment scores on each scale. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to understand the relationship between number of treatments and scar quality. Results Of the 90 patients enrolled, 54 patients completed serial scar assessment forms. All patient and observer-reported POSAS domains showed improvement ( P < 0.05) apart from Itching. All VSS domains showed improvement ( P < 0.05). There was moderate correlation between overall patient-reported opinion of scar quality and Discoloration, Stiffness and Thickness, and strong correlation between overall patient opinion and Irregularity (r = 0.715). All observer-reported domains were strongly correlated (r = 7.56–8.74) with overall observer opinion of scar quality. Conclusion The results of this study may further substantiate CO2 laser as a treatment modality for excessive scarring in a variety of surgical subspecialties. Lay Summary Complex trauma and burns that impact the skin sometimes result in abnormal healing of the skin called, “hypertrophic scarring”. In our study we assessed how using focused CO2 laser therapy impacts patients and health care provider assessment of wound progression. Our results were based upon patient reported and healthcare provider observations based upon two standardized forms the Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) and the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS). What we found is that after CO2 Laser Therapy, our 64 patients with 77 treated scars received on average almost 3 treatments and these treatments helped them with physical function and improved aesthetic appearance of their scars. The health care providers also found that the treatments improved functional and aesthetic end points. Overall, our study helps substantiate the body of evidence that using CO2 laser therapy improves aesthetics and function of hypertrophic scars in the upper extremity.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".