Multidisciplinary, multimodal approach for a child with a traumatic facial scar.
The treatment of disfiguring and disabling scars remains a field of active study, reinvigorated with recent advances in techniques and technologies. A variety of approaches can be utilized depending on scar characteristics, location, degree of tissue loss, and associated contractures. Just as traumatic scars can be complex and heterogeneous, the corresponding paradigm for treatment must also be flexible and multimodal for optimal improvement. This report describes a 3-year-old girl with a "mixed" (atrophic/hypertrophic), violaceous, contracted facial scar from a dog bite. It was treated with a novel approach utilizing a multidisciplinary pediatric scar team to combine autologous fat grafting, ablative fractional laser resurfacing, pulsed-dye laser, and laser-assisted delivery of a corticosteroid as concurrent, multimodal therapy to optimize the outcome.
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
Shehla
S
Admani
Naval Medical Center, San Diego, California, USA.
Jeffrey W
JW
Gertner
Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, California, USA.
Amanda
A
Grosman
Naval Medical Center, San Diego, California, USA.
Peter R
PR
Shumaker
The Aroostook Medical Center, Presque Isle, Maine, USA.
Nathan S
NS
Uebelhoer
Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, California, USA. akrakowski@rchsd.org.
Andrew C
AC
Krakowski
ablative laser; autologous; carbon dioxide laser; contracture; cosmetic; disfiguring; dog bite; fat transfer; fractionated; injury; laser; plastic surgery; pulsed-dye laser; reconstruction; scar; trauma