It was the best Congress on scars I have ever attended. A star Faculty met for the second time (the first was last year) to describe and share a personal experience on the treatment and prevention of scars. It would be too long to describe every single relationship but the Congress ranged from basic research to the therapy, surgical and laser. Gerd Gauglitz (Munich – Germany), Ardeshir Bayat (London – United Kingdom) and Geoffrey Gurtner (Stanford – California, USA) have described initially the evolution of normal and pathological scar, highlighting where in the wound healing process the scar tends to become pathological and how it could be modified to get better the final scar (or to avoid its formation). William Norbury (Galveston – Texas, USA), Uwe Paasch (Leipzig – Germany), Merete Haedersdal (Copenhagen – Denmark, the Netherlands) and the president of the Congress Ofir Artzi (Tel Aviv – Israel) have described how to reduce the scars’ formation placing the emphasis on the development of Heat Shock Protein 70 after the laser therapy, on the need to intervene with the laser as soon as possible or even before a possible surgical incision, how to act in the wound healing process and, finally, they have proposed an algorithm to relieve or prevent the formation of pathological scars. Then we passed to understanding which medicaments can be used in the scars’ treatment and, above all, which are the scientific basis of the laser-assisted drug delivery (Merete Haedersdal, Uwe Paasch, Gerd Gauglitz, Joseph Haik (Tel Aviv – Israel), Jill Waibel (Miami – Florida, USA)). Tere were explained in more details the guidelines and surgical techniques, the role of photodynamic therapy, of the fat implant and of the cryotherapy (Ardeshir Bayat, Geoffrey Gurtner, David Leshem and Yaron Har-Shari (Israel)).
The second day began with a session related to the role of laser therapy in the scars’ treatment. There were described in details fractionated ablative and non-ablative lasers and vascular lasers. I understand more and more the role of lasers in the treatment of the skins of high phototype and I presented a report in which I have just described, that does not exist an algorithm for the laser treatment of the scars, and describing my practical approach to the scars (Jill Waibel, Woraphong Manuskiatti (Bangkok – Thailand), Uwe Paasch, William Norbury). Then we passed to a session on the acne scars during which were described the different types of laser, besides other traditional and ancillary methods. Also in this case I noticed a big difference in approach between Caucasian type of skin and Asian/African and I have also understood, finally, that the limit of 6 months of pause between the suspension of the oral therapy with isotretinoin and any laser treatment has no scientific support, and that, therefore, the different technologies can be immediately used after drug suspension (Peter Shumaker (San Diego – California, USA), Henry Chan (Hong Kong), Woraphong Manuskiatti, Greg Goodman (Melbourne – Australia), Marina Landau (Tel Aviv – Israel), Ofir Artzi). In the following session, instead, were involved several non-doctors who, with their work, can help or are sometimes indispensable in the scars treatment (tattoo artists, physical therapists, occupational therapists). Finally, the multidisciplinary approach was faced and it was evaluated as essential in a session that involved almost all the continents (Firas Al-Naimi, Henry Chan, Peter Shumaker, William Norbury). The conclusion of the conference was very interesting. During it, the participants talked about the future of the scars treatment and especially of stem cells, new drugs, and new laser treatments.
It was just great
