Keloids
Keloid scar treatment
Skin injuries heal over time, but sometimes scarring remains. One type of scarring is keloids. Composed of collagen that accumulates in excess amounts at some injury sites during the healing process, they appear as firm, rubbery lesions or shiny, fibrous nodules. Either way, they vary from pink to flesh-colored or red to dark brown in color.
A keloid scar is not dangerous, but it usually comes with itchiness and pain. Sometimes, it makes the skin stiff and limits mobility.
What Are Keloids Caused By?
According to Crutchfield Dermatology, a Minneapolis skin-treatment office, experts are not sure why keloids form. Most people never develop them. Those that do tend to get them in places where they previously had cuts, insect bites, acne, burns, scratching or other skin damage. Also, people with darker skin complexions seem to be more prone.
Rough shaving can cause keloids in men. When razor bumps, burns and cuts become infected, keloids can form. A man who is getting keloids from shaving should cease shaving temporarily, until the skin heals. Heredity is also believed to play a role.
What Are the Options for Keloids Treatment?
When patients apply Vitamin E oil, keloids often fade, if not disappear altogether. Other topical products that help include Mederma, a gel that contains allium cepa; Hexilak Gel, which has allium, heparin and allantoin; and Dermatix, which has silicone gel.
Some patients require surgical extractions via laser or scalpel. People with earlobe keloids, for example, might undergo an otoplasty, in which a cut behind the ear removes the keloid and, sometimes, some of the excess cartilage with it. The surgeon will add sutures to hold the remaining cartilage together and allow it to heal.
Surgery has one unfortunate downside: a patient faces a 50 percent chance that the keloids will return. California dermatologist Aaron Stone says that steroid injections, debulking treatments and pressure garments will lower the chances of new keloids forming after surgery. Some surgeons use supplementary radiation treatments as well.
Residual scarring can remain, but Stone says that they respond well to silastic sheeting, pressure garments and laser treatments. He cautions that the skin will never be exactly as it was before, though it can be substantially repaired.