How we best reduce the size of scars is an important question as a scar will in almost all cases result from any injuries and cuts we experience
. Three sorts of scars encompass the full-range of how they can appear on one's skin. Atrophic, pitted scars cause the injury or cut to be indented. Hypertrophic, raised scars will raise above the injury or cut but not extending further than its borders. After that there are keloid scars. These develop beyond the borders of the injury or cut to areas of the skin that weren't originally injured. This is the most challenging type of scar to cure for numerous reasons.
First and foremost the causes of keloid scars can vary from piercings to cuts to burns to inflammatory reactions resulting from acne. Secondly they may only begin to grow after a good amount of time has elapsed since the original injury. The third and most dispiriting difficulty is removing the scar successfully by means of surgery can very easily cause a new keloid scar to raise over the surgery wound!
These features of this type of scar call for a deeper investigation as to how best to treat them.
Finding an Effective Treatment for Keloids
Doctors typically use complementary treatment methods to accompany surgery that decrease that chances of a post keloid treatment recurrence. The main techniques involved with this strategy are steroid injections and compression therapy.
Steroid injections can be used both before, during, or after the sugery with the benefit of flattening the scar's form. Long-acting cortisone (steroid) shots will be injected on average one time a month with the difference apparent in 3 to 6 months time. The good part is the cortisone reduces the size of the scar with very little of it getting into the bloodstream.
Compression bandages are believed to work from restricting oxygen to the scar which cuts down on the biological process that leads to the formation of what are keloid scars. They are specialized made garments that are made to be worn twenty four hours a day and changed weekly for a period of six to eighteen months. They have a track record of successfully minimizing the size of the scar but the commitment is very consuming.