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Scanner-Assisted Carbon Dioxide Laser Surgery Effective For Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Surgery using the carbon dioxide laser rapid-beam optomechanical scanner system is fast, efficient and well accepted by patients with hidradenitis suppurativa.

Hidradenitis suppurativa has chronic fistulating lesions that spread by contiguous growth. Effective surgical treatment requires removal of all affected tissue, explain investigators from the the Karolinska Institute at Huddinge University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.

They evaluated scanner-assisted carbon dioxide laser surgery in 34 patients with Hurley stage II hidradenitis suppurativa.

Patients were of a mean age of 33.9 years and had had hidradenitis for a mean 13.4 years. They all had experienced more than three recurrences of suppurating lesions in year preceding the study. Thirty-one of the patients were women.

Follow-up after surgery ranged from seven to 87 months with the mean follow-up period being 34.5 months.

Mean time to healing was four weeks. Four patients experienced recurrences at the surgical site during follow-up.

Thirty patients had no recurrences at the surgical site. However, 12 patients developed suppurating lesions that were separated from the surgical site by at least five centimeters and 25 patients experienced flares of lesions in areas other than the treatment site. Eight patients had no recurrences at all.

The investigators conclude that macroscopically controlled tissue-selective carbon dioxide laser surgery is an appropriate treatment for hidradenitis suppurativa.

Funds for this research were provided by the Finsen Foundation and the Edvard Welander Foundation.
J Am Acad Dermatol 2002; 47:280-285 "Scanner-assisted carbon dioxide laser surgery: A retrospective follow-up study of patients with hidradenitis suppurativa"

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