Cortisone and needling

[dc-girl]

Hello Sarah,

I am fairly familier with needling but am facing something new right now. After being clear for quite a while I developed a cyst on my face near  my chin and jawline area. It was HUGE and and had it injected with cortisone to take down the swelling several times(3 times).
Well today I saw a surgeon about the cyst and getting it removed because it is raised awful looking still. All the treatments I have tried haven't worked and I'm thinking about needling beneath it where it looks like it's pulling on the skin the most.
The surgeon told me that cortisone can stay in my system for 6-9 months and that it inhibits healing.

Will the cortison prevent the needling from working? I'm wondering if the cortisone inhibits healing than would the needling not heal or swell like it normally should? THe area I want to needle appears to be "tethered" down but I won't know until I try to needle it if thats the case for sure or not.
I certainly don't want to do more damage but I'm desperate to improve the look of it; it's wrecking my life right now. The cyst seems to feel like it's in a "sac" and I think the scar tissue around it is what's pulling on my skin and making it look so bad.

So my question to you is, do you know of anyone who needled an area that had had cortison injected into within a month of needling?
Will the cortison prevent the needling from working?

[SarahVaughter]

I do not think it is a good idea to needle a serious acne cyst. The cyst should first heal and then you can needle the pigmentation or the scar that will be left. Respectively, needle it only if nothing else helps.

You could perhaps try an OTC topical antibiotic cream or you can try our 0.1% Tretinoin cream but it will make the cyst temporarily much redder.
Tretinoin speeds up the turnover of the skin and this could provoke the cyst into a kind of "healing" response, however Tretinoin also sometimes make acne initially worse before it makes it better.

You could also try a topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, containing for example ibuprofen. Buy NUROFEN rapid capsules or NAPROXEN capsules and pierce them. They both contain a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory subtance.

If the cyst is infected, buy Betadine liquid or Betadine cream. It contains povidone-iodine, a powerful disinfection.

Cortisone suppresses inflammation by suppressing the impairing the immune system and this can indeed interfere with healing. Cortisone injections can also result in indentation of the skin.