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| Army Medical Corps motto |
Last week I attended a lecture given by an Air Force dermatologist
entitled "Botox and Lasers: Restoring Function to Our Wounded
Warriors". Just fascinating. He uses Botox to quell the sweating at
the stump where a prosthetic limb slides on with a Neoprene sleeve- by
chemically removing the sweat glands with Botox and using lasers to
remove the hair, the prosthetic is much less likely to slip off and the
skin get infected (from infections that start and spread from the hair
follicle).
The other aspect
of laser treatment is softening and remodeling scars from skin grafts,
both for cosmesis and for function- examples he gave were a soldier
whose chest was bound with stiff circumferential scars that prevented
him from expanding his chest and breathing fully, thus severely limiting
his exercise tolerance. After treatment the soldier was able to
inspire more fully as the skin on his chest became more lax... and he
could walk farther. Similarly, laser treatments were able to soften
scars of the antecubital fossa (the other side of the elbow) such that
the patient could fully extend his arm. Another patient- a decorated
sniper- regained the function of his badly scarred trigger finger, which
the dermatologist said, is not just important for function but for the
restoration of self-image for people who define themselves but what they can
do, and for the mission they perform for the military.
Amazing work. Here is LtCol Hivnor and one such wounded warrior:
LOVE THIS! So relieved to hear real docs using Botox to change people's lives rather than what I heard last week - "my derm. botoxes her forehead in the car pool line"; thanks for being part of something awesome, Julie!
ReplyDeleteThanks Katherine! As a matter of full disclosure I received both Botox (for wrinkle prevention) and a laser treatment (for a dilated blood vessel on the tip of my nose) three days before I heard this presentation! So I am a believer in their cosmetic applications-- but the real power of these agents is social (Botox for sweaty palms, for instance, for people who don't shake hands because of their self-consciousness) and functionally (in the case of these soldiers). I just like to think the billions and billions of dollars spent for cosmetic reasons fuels the research and development of more innovations like this that will lead to improved quality of life whether dramatic and life-changing or subtle and confidence-boosting.
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