Introduction and Aim:

Intra-lesional steroid treatment for a raised scar is well established, but there are no means to objectively assess treatment response. We assessed the feasibility of monitoring changes in scar volume in response to intra-lesional steroid treatment with application of 3D speckle texture stereophotogrammetry.

Materials and Method:

Subjects without previous treatment to their hypertrophic / keloid scars were followed up during their course of intra-lesional steroid treatment. Pre- and serial post-treatment imaging was carried out at 4 weekly intervals. Result:

There is a significant reduction in scar volume over time with intra-lesional steroid treatment (p < 0.0001, ANOVA). Mean scar volume at the start of treatment was 0.7185 cc ( 2.211- 0.1324). By 8 weeks post treatment the scar volume is reduced by more than 50% its pre treatment volume.

Conclusion: Three-dimensional stereophotogrammetry is a rapid, non-invasive objective scar volume assessment tool allowing accurate monitoring of treatment response. The ability to objectively measure changes in scar volume will allow evaluation of new therapeutic modalities.

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