Skin needling for the treatment of acne scarring: A comprehensive review

Skin needling, also called "collagen induction therapy," is a nonpharmacological treatment modality that has been increasingly utilized for the treatment of acne scars.

To review the medical literature and to select the most significative and recent studies regarding skin needling as a treatment for acne scarring, used alone or combined with other treatments.

A literature search was performed using the PubMed, Medline, and Embase databases, in addition to reviewing the bibliographies of relevant articles.

Almost all the articles evaluated showed improvement of acne scars severity after microneedling treatment. When combined with other treatments such as autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP), chemical peels, filler injections, or laser treatment, a greater improvement was reported. Needling technique is well-tolerated with erythema and dryness representing the most frequent adverse events.

Microneedling is a useful treatment for acne scarring. Further studies are needed to evaluate its efficacy and safety and to create a standardized protocol to adopt for each patient according to the severity of acne scars.