Background: Atrophic facial scars are a most common complication of acne which is difficult to treat, especially deep-seated scars and which involve much of the face. Dermaroller therapy has been proved to be a good treatment option which provides an excellent reduction in acne scars. Copper peptides is a newer treatment option which has been evaluated to give excellent results in scar reduction.

Objective: To compare the efficacy of using dermaroller alone and dermaroller combined with copper peptides and assess the reduction in the severity of acne scars

Methods: Twenty four patients who had atrophic facial acne scars were selected and divided into two groups. One group was treated with dermaroller alone and the other group was treated with dermaroller with copper peptides. Both the group were offered with five sittings at an interval of 1 month between successive sittings. The scars were graded using Goodman and Baron quantitative grading pre-operatively and at each sitting with serial of photographs taken to validate the result.

Results: The mean score of the dermaroller group was 11.42(n=12) and dermaroller with copper peptide was 12.92(n=12) which reduced to 8.50 in the dermaroller group and 6.50 in the dermaroller with copper peptide group which were 26.30% and 50.30% decrease from the mean value respectively. Boxcar scars reduced to 77.78%, rolling scars reduced to 34.79%, ice-pick scars did not change with the copper peptide group. Both the group had a p-value<0.05, which was statistically significant.

Conclusion: Dermaroller remains a safe and effective treatment option, but when compared with copper peptides, it gives better results, most commonly with boxcar scars.

Keywords: Acne scars, Copper peptides, Dermaroller, Goodman and Baron quantitative scoring.

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Prem Kumar

Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Kelambakkam, Chennai, India

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