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Microneedling enhances topical anesthesia application for acne scar treatment

Fractional microneedling plus topical anesthesia decreased pain sensation better than topical anesthesia alone when used prior to microneedling procedures for treating postacne scarring, according to recently published study results.

Researchers studied 15 patients (average age, 25 years; nine males) who were seeking treatment of different types of postacne atrophic scars. One side of the patients’ faces were randomly treated with automated fractional skin microneedling (0.5 mm depth) followed by the application of topical anesthetic cream of lidocaine  2.5% plus pilocaine 2.5% (treated side), while the other side of the face was treated with topical anesthesia alone (nontreated side).

The treated side included four passes, (two vertical and two horizontal) over the cheek with stretching the skin at speed 6, or 75 to 80 cycles per second. Nothing was done to the nontreated side.

Fractional microneedling treatment for the postacne scars (2.5 mm depth) was conducted on the full face. Treatment included 20 passes, 10 vertical and 10 horizontal, with stretching of the skin.

There were significantly lower pain scores for the treated sides compared with the nontreated sides. There were statistically significantly lower scores of pain sensation during the whole procedure (P < .0001) on the combination treated sides (3.10 ± 1.09) of the face compared with the side treated with topical anesthesia alone (5.37 ± 0.99).

“There was also a statistically significant (P <  .0001) difference in pain sensation scores between the two sides of the face after horizontal passes, as the mean scores of the treated and nontreated sides were 3.93 ± 0.59 and 6.2 ± 0.41, respectively,” the researchers wrote.

“Despite the existence of several anesthetic agents, it is difficult for these substances to penetrate the skin,” the researchers wrote. “The stratum corneum is the main obstacle to the drugs’ percutaneous absorption because its barrier function significantly restricts the drugs’ transdermal delivery.”

“Microneedling enhanced the transdermal perfusion of topical anesthesia and decreased pain sensation during treatments,” the researchers concluded.  “Application of topical anesthesia for minimally invasive aesthetic procedures can be enhanced with fractional microneedling pretreatment.” – by Bruce Thiel

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.