Table 1. Summary of skin resurfacing studies for the treatment of alopecia areata.

*Nd:YAG: neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet.

Author, year	Resurfacing technique	Additional treatment(s)	Study Design	Laser/needling settings	Number of sessions	Interval	Number of Subjects	Alopecia type	Adverse effects	results
Yalici-Armagan et al., 2016 [21]	CO2 laser (10600 nm)     Nd:YAG* laser (1064 nm)	None	Prospective, split lesion study	10-45 mJ/cm2, 75-100 spots/cm2     10 J/cm2, 30 millisecond pulse	3-6	2-4 weeks   2-8 weeks	32 (19 male, 13 female)	Alopecia areata	Pain	No improvement
Issa et al., 2016 [22]	CO2 laser (10600 nm)	Topical corticosteroid	Prospective study	60 mJ/spot, 100 spots/cm2, 2 passes	1-6	3 weeks	5 (1 male, 4 female)	Alopecia areata	Mild burning pain	Improvement in all patients
Eckert et al., 2016 [23]	Erbium glass laser (1550 nm)	None	Retrospective series	Variable	2-3	3-6 weeks	5 (2 male, 3 female)	Alopecia areata	Pain	Improvement in all treated lesions
Cho et al., 2013 [24]	CO2 laser (10600 nm)   Erbium glass laser (1550 nm)	Variable	Retrospective series	30-50 mJ/spot, 150 spots/cm2   6-8 mJ/spot, 300 spots/cm2	2-3	3-6 weeks	3 (1 male, 2 female)	Ophiasis	Pain, crusting, scaling, erythema, and edema	2 of 3 patients demonstrated improvement
Tsai, 2011 [25]	Erbium glass laser (1550 nm)	Intralesional corticosteroid injection	Split scalp case report	Not reported	12	1 week	1 male	Alopecia areata	None	Improvement vs steroid alone
Yoo et al., 2010 [26]	Erbium glass laser (1550 nm)	None	Case report	10-15 mJ/spot, 300 spots/cm2, 2 passes	24	1 week	1 male	Alopecia areata	None	Complete regrowth in treated lesions
Mysore et al., 2014 [27]	Microneedle dermaroller	Topical corticosteroids	Case series		3	3 weeks	2 males	Alopecia areata	None	Improvement
Yoo et al., 2010 [28]	1 mm microneedle roller	Topical methyl 5-aminolevulinate acid and photodynamic therapy with red light	Split lesion case series		3	4 weeks	8 (2 male, 6 female)	Alopecia areata	Mild pain, and erythema	No improvement