Radiofrequency for the treatment of skin laxity: mith or truth

The nonablative radiofrequency is a procedure commonly used for the treatment of skinlaxity from an increase in tissue temperature. The goal is to induce thermal damageto thus stimulate neocollagenesis in deep layers of the skin and subcutaneous tissue.However, many of these devices haven''t been tested and their parameters are still notaccepted by the scientific community. Because of this, it is necessary to review theliterature regarding the physiological effects and parameters for application ofradiofrequency and methodological quality and level of evidence of studies. Aliterature search was performed in MEDLINE, PEDro, SciELO, PubMed, LILACS and CAPESand experimental studies in humans, which used radiofrequency devices as treatmentfor facial or body laxity, were selected. The results showed that the mainphysiological effect is to stimulate collagen synthesis. There was no homogeneitybetween studies in relation to most of the parameters used and the methodologicalquality of studies and level of evidence for using radiofrequency are low. This factcomplicates the determination of effective parameters for clinical use of this devicein the treatment of skin laxity. The analyzed studies suggest that radiofrequency iseffective, however the physiological mechanisms and the required parameters are notclear in the literature.