A simple, inexpensive, and reproducible wound dressing to optimize topical drug absorption after ablative fractional laser-assisted drug delivery

Laser-assisted drug delivery uses an ablative fractional laser to create microchannels in skin to overcome the epidermal barrier and improve drug delivery to the intended target while providing therapeutic benefit from the laser itself.1 There are no standard protocols regarding postprocedural care and, in particular, how to optimize penetration of topical agents before laser microchannels re-epithelialize, which occurs approximately 48 hours after laser treatment. In accordance with our experience treating burn scars with topical triamcinolone acetonide, we describe a simple, affordable, and readily adoptable dressing to optimize drug delivery for select topical agents while laser microchannels are still patent.