RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY
Correction of scars
What is it about?
The scar is a fibrous tissue that is formed to fill up the wounds or loss of tissues: it is present whenever there is a suspension of the continuity of the skin due to a trauma that represents not only a physical injury, but even more psychological none.
The scar is a physiological process that consists of a first phase, which lasts a few weeks after healing, in which the scar appears red (erythematous) and sometimes itchy. During the maturation phase, with a duration changeable from a few months to a year, the scar fades until it takes on a color similar to that of the surrounding skin, the scar softens and flattens.
What are pathological scars?
Hypotrophic scars: they appear endorsed compared to the plane of the surrounding undamaged skin, very thin and soft in consistency.
Hypertrophic scars: they appear reliexed compared to the plane of the surrounding undamaged skin, bright red in color, fibrous consistency, itchy and easily flammable. They can be the result of unfavorable local conditions that can occur during the healing of the wound (infection, hematoma, excessive tension or contusion of the margins) or of a particular individual predisposition.
Keloids or keloid scars: they have the same morphological characteristics as hypertrophic scars, but they differ in their dimensions which sometimes exceed significantly those of the wound from which they originated. They are always caused by an individual predisposition, often on a family basis, they can arise in any part of the body even following minimum injuries.
RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY
Are you interested in scar correction?
What are the therapeutic options?
Living with such an injury is not always easy, for this reason we often look for an effective remedy to neutralize it. There are various techniques in the surgical field to eliminate the signs of scars; Dermabrasion, mainly used to eliminate acne scars but also for injuries caused by minor burns. This treatment allows to correct the irregularities of the skin surface by using steel brushes or cutters that are on the skin leveling it, eliminating the most superficial layer.
Following the surgery, a dressing will be put on , which will weekly by changed in the medical clinic.
- 1) The healing is complete, it is important to apply a full screen sunscreen and avoid exposing to the sun for protracted time so as not to incur hyperpigmentation of the skin.
- 2) A revision surgery may be indicated, which consists in the excision of the scar, in the detachment of its margins from the underlying tissues and in their direct confrontation through subcutaneous and “intradermal” sutures, that is threads that run under the skin and in its thickness.
- 3) Among the techniques there is also the treatment by using the C02 laser. The surgery consists in vaporizing the affected tissues, leaving the near ones completely unharmed, thanks to the precision of the laser, creating a quick flaking of the tissues and a natural regeneration of the skin.
- 4) Non-surgical conservative treatments can be performed, through cortisone infiltrations, in order to decrease the thickness of the scar. This procedure can be performed as an outpatient, it is not painful and can be repeated.
Conclusions
It should be reminded that the plastic surgeon therefore uses different techniques to obtain a scar of good quality, that is, thin, located on the same level as the surrounding undamaged skin and possibly hidden in furrows or natural folds, however oriented according to particular directions in order not to be very evident.
However, the final result depends on the techniques used and the experience of the surgeon: the patient must collaborate by keeping the dressing in place without wetting it, limiting some movements, avoiding too early exposure to sunlight, applying antibiotic or softening creams.
There are also factors that can modify the abnormal healing process and therefore oppose to a good final result.
