Table 2.

Pain score comparing control (non-intervention) and microneedle-treated keloids at baseline (visit 1), after 4 weeks of treatment (visit 2) and a subsequent 4 weeks of no treatment (visit 3)

Pain score	Visit 1	Visit 2	Visit 3	Change from visit 1 to 2	Change from visit 2 to 3	Change from visit 1 to 3
Phase one (n = 27)
Control keloids
Mean ± SD	1.2 ± 2.0	1.0 ± 1.8	1.0 ± 1.9	− 0.2 ± 1.0	− 0.04 ± 0.8	− 0.2 ± 1.3
Median (min, max)	0.0 (0.0, 6.0)	0.0 (0.0, 5.0)	0.0 (0.0, 7.0)	0.0 (− 5.0, 1.0)	0.0 (− 2.0, 3.0)	0.0 (− 5.0, 3.0)
p value for comparing visits within the control group				0.344	0.796	0.256
Microneedle-treated keloids
Mean ± SD	0.9 ± 1.5	0.3 ± 0.8	0.4 ± 1.1	− 0.5 ± 1.1	− 0.1 ± 0.9	− 0.4 ± 1.1
Median (min, max)	0.0 (0.0, 5.0)	0.0 (0.0, 3.0)	0.0 (0.0, 4.0)	0.0 (− 4.0, 0.0)	0.0 (− 2.0, 4.0)	0.0 (− 4.0, 1.0)
p value for comparing visits within the microneedle group				0.007	0.509	0.035
Phase two (n = 17)
Control keloids
Mean ± SD	0.6 ± 1.8	0.7 ± 1.8	0.4 ± 1.2	0.1 ± 0.5	− 0.3 ± 0.8	− 0.2 ± 0.7
Median (min, max)	0.0 (0.0, 7.0)	0.0 (0.0, 7.0)	0.0 (0.0, 4.0)	0.0 (0.0, 2.0)	0.0 (− 3.0, 0.0)	0.0 (− 3.0, 0.0)
p value for comparing visits within the control group				0.477	0.141	0.286
Microneedle-treated keloids
Mean ± SD	0.4 ± 1.7	0.1 ± 0.5	0.5 ± 1.9	− 0.3 ± 1.2	0.4 ± 1.5	0.1 ± 0.2
Median (min, max)	0.0 (0.0, 7.0)	0.0 (0.0, 2.0)	0.0 (0.0, 8.0)	0.0 (− 5.0, 0.0)	0.0 (0.0, 6.0)	0.0 (0.0, 1.0)
p value for comparing visits within the microneedle group				0.187	0.157	0.792
p value for comparing visits between control and microneedle groups
Phase one control versus phase one microneedle group				0.230	0.551	0.551
Phase two control versus phase two microneedle group				0.058	0.025	0.161
p value for comparing microneedle groups between phase one and phase two
Phase one microneedle versus phase two microneedle group				0.515	0.105	0.055

Significance level of p ≤ 0.05 are shown in underline