Objectives
To identify if Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) as an adjunctive treatment for patients with pathological post burn scar (PPBS) offers benefits over standard treatment alone

Methods
A prospective study was conducted in our center recruiting burn patients older than 18 years with PPBS greater than 1% TBSA located in a limb.

Patients were sequentially assigned using a non repetitive random series of numbers from one to forty where patients would be assorted as even or odd.

Both groups control and treatment received standard PPBS treatment, namely compression garments, silicone sheets, etc. The treatment group received ESWT two times a week for the first four weeks follow up.

Both groups were assessed on the day of recruitment day 0, at six weeks and six months.

Patients at all points were assessed using the Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) and Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) for both pain and itchiness.

Results were analyzed using U Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon

Results
Currently 29 patients have been recruited one abandoned the study.

So far median values for all three variables improved over time (table 1 & 2) and were better in the treatment group albeit not statistically so at every point (table 3).

Notably even at day 0, the treatment group showed statistically significant more favorable values see (table 3).

Conclusion
Preliminary results indicates that patients on average showed improvement in all measured variables regardless of their assorted group, suggesting improvement over time and possibly the effects of the subjective nature of the variables.

Apparently, ESWT as an adjunctive treatment offers some improvement, but more precise measurements and in-depth analysis is required before considering its inclusion to the practitioner’s armamentarium for pathologic scars post burn or otherwise.

1 - Extracorporeal shock wave therapy as adjunctive treatment for pathological post burn scars a prospective study an update