Efficacy and Safety of Fractional CO2 Laser Combined With Intralesional Insulin, Botulinum Toxin or Triamcinolone Acetonide in the Treatment of Keloid: A Clinical, Dermoscopic and Immunohistochemical Study.

Efficacy and Safety of Fractional CO2 Laser Combined With Intralesional Insulin, Botulinum Toxin or Triamcinolone Acetonide in the Treatment of Keloid: A Clinical, Dermoscopic and Immunohistochemical Study.

Keloids are macroscopic cutaneous scarring that result from disturbance of wound healing, that occurs on predisposed individuals .

Keloid shows a kind of over-healing, producing over abundant wound matrix responsible for raised, inflexible red scar tissue, that causes pain and itching .

Multiple hypotheses have been proposed for keloid formation. Though the pathogenesis of keloids is not fully understood, it involves the dysregulation of complex inflammatory pathways .

Several studies reported that IGF-IR was overexpressed in keloid fibroblasts . Current treatment options include intralesional and topical therapies, surgical interventions, radiation, and laser-based therapies.

Intralesional corticosteroid is the most commonly used nonsurgical treatment for keloids . Fractional laser combined triamcinolone acetonide with may minimize collagen production by decreasing fibroblast activity, with a low recurrence rate of 15.4%, which is superior to each modality.

In recent years, physicians were using botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) as a modality for prevention and treatment of keloids. Botulinum toxin type A, isolated from Clostridium botulinum, is a potent neurotoxin that blocks neuromuscular transmission. It has been shown to improve scar cosmesis by decreasing tension on healing wound edges.

The role of topical insulin in wound healing has been under search in literature since 1970s .

Zhang et al. explored the effect of local insulin injection on systemic blood glucose level and wound healing in patients with diabetic foot ulcer.

As far as the investigatorrs are aware, this is the first study to assess the effectiveness and safety of intralesional insulin for the treatment of keloid.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients aged equal or more than 10 years old
• with keloids diagnosed clinically
• with any size less than 10 cm2

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnancy
• Hypertrophic scars
• Diabetes mellitus
• Kidney or liver disease
• Active infection at site of lesion
• Lesions suspicious for malignancy
• Patients use medications that reduced tissue healing during the study or in a period less than sex months ago (immunosuppressants and isotretinoin)
• Patients received any treatment for keloid in the last 3 months