The skin's natural restorative healing after one suffers from a cut
, injury or surgery will more times than not leave a scar. But not every scar is as simple as leaving a mark at the site of the original injury. Keloid scars are those that grow beyond the borders of the original skin injury, and in some cases grow uncontrollably.
This abnormal scar can affect anyone but women and individuals with highly pigmented skin have a higher rate of contracting them. The sternum, upper arm, and upper back are the main regions where this type of scar is found. Due to piercing of ears, keloids have had a high rate of growing on earlobes.
The jury is still out as to why keloid scars grow beyond the site of the original injury. Factors most common related are skin trauma, muscle tension, and infection at a wound site. In addition hereditary factors seem to play a role as there is a high percentage of this scar being found amongst family members. Prevention for those with skin susceptible to this type of scar is mainly confined to not having any piercings or tattoos and notifying your doctor before surgery. After they do form there exists some option you can take to promote their diminishment with the overall goal of keloid removal.
Keloid Scar Treatment
Surgery would appear to be the most obvious method of keloid scar removal. Nonetheless there is more than a 50% chance a new keloid scar will form over the surgery wound that was inflicted in the effort to get rid of the original keloid scar. Laser treatments were hoped to have a lower recurrence rate but to no avail.
Even so paired together with additional treatment plans surgery will have a lower possibility of causing the regrowth of a new keloid scar. Radiation therapy after surgery is a treatment that could limit chances of a new keloid by up to 70% studies have shown. Nevertheless the potential long term side effects associated with using radiation can outweigh the treatment of what is a benign outgrowth of the skin. What one fears using this treatment is a malignancy effect.
Cryosurgery would be useful minus its effect of leaving permanent hyperpigmentation among those with darker skin.