Background & Aim: There is no widely approved treatment
procedure for post-burn scars, even though many therapy
approaches have been promoted. Many previous studies
separately evaluated fat injection and platelet rich plasma in
treatment of post-burn scar. This study aimed to compare efficacy
of both fat injection and platelet rich plasma in improving
outcome of post burn facial scar.
Patients and Methods: In the current study a total of 60
patients with post-burn facial scar were enrolled. Those patients
were randomly subdivided into either fat injection group < br />(n=30) or platelet rich plasma group (PRP) (n=30). Baseline
characteristics were recorded in addition to Vancouver score
(VS) used to assess the scar and histological evaluation.
Results: Most patients were female with no significant
differences among both groups regarding different baseline
data and scar characteristics. There were no significant differences
among the groups regarding baseline Vancouver score
(VS) and epidermal thickness, but the fat injection group had
significantly lower VS (3.67±1.83 vs 3.87±1.33; p < 0.001) and
higher epidermal thickness (362.20±92.73 vs. 255.40±90.00
(um); p < 0.001) during follow-up. There were only two (6.7
percent) cases in the PRP group & four (13.3%) cases in the
fat injection group developed conservatively relieved edema.
Conclusion: The autologous fat injection was effective and
safe technique in improving the outcome of post-burn facial
scar as evaluated by Vancouver score and epidermal thickness.
It's recommended to perform such study on large number of
patients in multiple centers with longer duration of follow-up < br />to confirm such findings.