The ECCA grading scale (échelle d’évaluation clinique des cicatrices d’acné) is a validated tool designed to help doctors to assess the severity of acne scars and to standardize discussions about the treatments of scars. By itself, it does not help select the best treatment option for a patient.
Most practitioners are in agreement that combination treatments tailored to the type of acne scars present is the most important consideration in the choice of acne scar treatments.
In general, deep ice-pick scars are most resistant to the treatments and often require punch excision as a first stage to convert them to shallower scars before embarking on additional resurfacing procedures.
The most commonly resurfacing procedures include:
- Subcision
- Microneedling
- Fractional CO2 lasering
- Fractional microneedle RF
- Fractional picosecond lasering.
Each has its own pros & cons in terms of efficacy, downtime, side-effects and costs. Do read up the Acne Scar Treatment section for more details on these various acne scar treatment options.