Rationale: In dermatology anesthetics are frequently injected or topically applied to achieve local anesthesia. Injectable anesthetics are effective but uncomfortable during administration, especially for people who are needle phobic. Application of topical anesthesia is painless but time consuming and often only partial aesthesia is achieved due to the barrier function of the stratum corneum. (Manuskiatti, Triwongwaranat et al. 2010) Penetration of local anesthetics could be enhanced by pretreatment of the skin with ablative fractional lasers (AFXL) which locally disrupts the stratum corneum by creating an array of microscopic ablation channels. (Sklar, Burnett et al. 2014) In a previous pilot study, conducted at our institute, we demonstrated that effective anesthesia could be achieved within ten minutes after application of a topical anesthetic on skin pretreated with AFXL at painless settings. (Meesters, Bakker et al. 2015) However, little is still known about the role of the type of fractional laser used (e.g. CO2 or Er:YAG laser), the laser settings, the type of anesthetic and the occlusion time on the efficacy of the anesthesia.~Objective: The objectives of this study are to compare the efficacy of pretreatment with two different ablative laser modalities, a CO2 laser and an Er:YAG laser, and to assess the role of laser density in fractional laser assisted topical anesthesia.~Study design: Prospective, single blinded, randomized, controlled, within subject, pilot study.~Study population: 15 healthy volunteers ≥18 years, who give written informed consent Intervention: In each subject, four test regions on subject's back of 1x1 cm will be randomly allocated to (I) pretreatment with the fractional CO2 laser at 5% density, (II) pretreatment with the fractional CO2 laser at 15% density, (III) pretreatment with the fractional Er:YAG laser at 5% density and (IV) pretreatment with the fractional Er:YAG laser at 15% density. After pretreatment, articaine hydrochloride 40 mg/ml + epinephrine 10 μg/ml 30 solution (AHES) will be applied on the test regions with 15 minutes occlusion time. After 15 minutes a pain stimulus, consisting of a pass with the fractional CO2 laser at 50 mJ and 5% density (scanned area 6x6 mm), will be given at each test region. In addition, a reference pain stimulus with the CO2 laser at the same settings will be given at unanesthetized skin. Subjects will be asked to indicate pain on a visual analogue scale (VAS) from 0-10 (0: no pain; 10: worst imaginable pain) directly after each pain stimulus.
The purpose of this study is to compare the effect of pretreatment with two different ablative laser modalities, a CO2 laser and an Er:YAG laser, and to assess the role of laser density in fractional laser assisted topical anesthesia.