Contractubex showed best results in the prevention of pathological scars .
BACKGROUND The treatment and prevention of  hypertrophic scars and keloids  represents a special challenge particularly in plastic surgery .
Given their simple , non-invasive and painless application , topical preparations are an attractive therapeutic option .
On the part of the patients , the efficacy in prevention of and therapy for hypertrophic scars and keloids of these topical preparations is regularly question ed .
The clarification of this issue is subject of this review .
Safety and efficacy of local administration of contractubex to hypertrophic scars in comparison to corticosteroid treatment. Results of a multicenter, comparative epidemiological cohort study in Germany.
OBJECTIVES To investigate the safety and efficacy of Contractubex administration to  hypertrophic scars  in routine out-patient practice and to compare it to corticosteroid treatment . PATIENTS AND METHODS This was a multicenter , retrospective cohort study , based on 38 r and omly selected practice s representatively distributed in Germany , including dermatologists and general practitioners . Data from 859 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were assessed and analyzed . Of these , 771 patients were eligible for the per protocol treatment with Contractubex  ( n=555 ) and corticosteroid ( n=216 ) . The safety and efficacy of local administration of Contractubex to hypertrophic scars was compared to corticosteroid treatment . RESULTS At the end of defined treatment periods ( minimum 28 days for local therapy with 1 intralesional corticosteroid application ) , normalization of the pre-treatment pathological parameters ( erythema , pruritus , consistency ) of hypertrophic scars was more frequent ( 42.5 % ) after Contractubex per protocol treatment as compared to corticosteroid per protocol treatment ( 22.2 % ) . After adjusting imbalances of baseline characterisics between the treatment groups by the propensity score , the odds ratio was 2.274 , demonstrating a significant superiority ( p<0.001 ) of Contractubex treatment as compared to corticosteroid treatment . The time to normalization of erythema , pruritus and consistency was significantly ( p=0.034 ) shorter with Contractubex treatment ( median 344 days ) than with corticosteroids ( median 507 days ) . No unexpected or severe adverse events occurred in the Contractubex-treated patients . Apart from moderate pruritus ( 10 % Contractubex vs. 1 % corticosteroids ) , adverse events were significantly ( p<0.001 ) more frequent in  corticosteroid-treated patients ( teleangiectasias 15 % vs. 7 % Contractubex ; cutaneous atrophy of scars 10 % vs. 2 % Contractubex ; cutaneous atrophy of scar surrounding skin tissue 11 % vs. 1 % Contractubex ) . CONCLUSION For the primary aim of this study ( assessment of normalization of erythema , pruritus , and consistency of hypertrophic scars ) and for time to normalization , local administration of Contractubex was significantly more effective than corticosteroid treatment . Concerning safety , Contractubex treatment was associated with significantly less adverse events ( e.g. teleangiectasias , cutaneous atrophy of scars and surrounding skin tissue ) than topical corticosteroid application
Contractubex showed best results in the prevention of pathological scars .
BACKGROUND The treatment and prevention of  hypertrophic scars and keloids  represents a special challenge particularly in plastic surgery .
Given their simple , non-invasive and painless application , topical preparations are an attractive therapeutic option .
On the part of the patients , the efficacy in prevention of and therapy for hypertrophic scars and keloids of these topical preparations is regularly question ed .
The clarification of this issue is subject of this review .