Center for Shockwave Medicine and Tissue Engineering, Department of Orthopedic Surgery/Sports Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
The purpose of this investigation was to study the effectiveness of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) for the treatment of keloid scars, and compared the results with intralesional steroid injection. Thirty-nine patients were randomly divided into 22 in ESWT group and 17 in steroid group. The ESWT group received 3 ESWT treatments in 6 weeks. The steroid group received three intra-lesional triamcinolone injections in 6 weeks. The evaluations included gross morphology, functional outcome, local blood flow perfusion, biopsy for histopathological examination, and immunohistochemical analysis.