How we successfully reduce the size of scars is an important question as a scar will in most every case result from any injury or a cut we experience
. Three types of scars encompass the full range of how they can surface on one's skin. Atrophic, pitted scars cause the injury or cut to be indented. Hypertrophic, raised scars develop above the cut or injury but not extending beyond its borders. Next there are keloid scars. These expand above and beyond the borders to regions of the skin that were originally not injured. This is the trickiest form of scar to cure for various reasons.
In the first instance the sources of keloid scars can vary from cuts to piercings to burns to inflammatory reactions resulting from acne. Secondly they may only begin to form 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 may very easily cause a new keloid scar to raise over the surgery wound!
These features of this form of scar call for a deeper investigation as to how best to cure them.
Finding an Effective Treatment for Keloids
Doctors typically use additional treatments to accompany surgery that diminish that chances of a post keloid treatment recurrence. The primary techniques associated with this strategy are compression therapy and steroid injections.
Steroid injections can be used both before, during, or after the sugery with the outcome of flattening the scar's size. Long-acting cortisone (steroid) shots are injected on average once a month with the difference in size visible in three to six months time. Their advantage is the cortisone treats the scar with very little of it getting into the bloodstream.
Compression bandages are thought to work by limiting oxygen to the scar which cuts down on the biological process that leads to the development of keloids. They are customized made garments that are made so they are worn twenty four hours a day and changed once a week for a period of 6 to 18 months. They have a track record of successfully cutting down the dimensions of the scar but the time and effort is very consuming.