Treatment Strategies for Hypopigmentation in the Context of Burn Hypertrophic Scars

Dyspigmentation in burn scars can contribute to the development of psychosocial complications after injury and can be detrimental to social reintegration and quality of life for burn survivors. Although treatments for skin lightening to treat hyperpigmentation have been well reviewed in the literature, skin-darkening strategies to treat hypopigmentation have not. The following potential treatment options in the context of burn hypertrophic scar will be discussed: use of the melanocyte-keratinocyte transplantation procedure, use of ectopic synthetic analogues of alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone to initiate melanogenesis, and use of FK506 to induce melanogenesis. A proposed future direction of research in laser-assisted drug delivery of inducers of local melanin production, with the hope of developing a targeted, effective approach to dyspigmentation in hypertrophic scar is also discussed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. Published online 18 January 2018. Received for publication November 8, 2017; accepted November 29, 2017. Disclosure: The authors have no financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article. The Article Processing Charge was paid for by the authors. Jeffrey W. Shupp, MD, The Burn Center, 110 Irving Street, NW, Suite 3B-55, Washington, DC 20010, E-mail: jeffrey.w.shupp@medstar.net Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. All rights reserved.

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