“…However, these modalities carry a long recovery period and possible serious side effects, including prolonged edema for up to 4 months, postprocedural hyperpigmentation, hypopigmentation, infection, hypertrophic scarring, and ectropion. 2,9 To achieve a favorable outcome with fewer adverse effects, fractional ablative CO 2 lasers, which retain intact untreated skin, are preferred by many physicians. 2 Compared with fully ablative 8 treatments, the downtime is reduced as are the rates of adverse effects, including prolonged erythema and postinflammatory hyperpigmentation.…”