Surgical incision scar

In our daily lives, we often get some minor illnesses, some of which must be treated by surgery. However, after surgical treatment, scars will be left at the surgical incision. For female friends, scars are very troublesome, and people often try to find ways to remove these scars. To restore scars, we can use some scar removal ointments or laser therapy.

Surgical incision scars are hypertrophic scars left on the skin surface after surgery. The choice of surgical incision will affect the effect of the operation and the shape, size, depth and other aspects of the surgical scar. Therefore, choosing the correct surgical incision during surgery will lay a good foundation for eliminating surgical scars in the future.

Causes:

1. Skin tension, including the external tension caused by the degree of skin tissue defect and the inherent tension of the skin tissue itself. Hypertrophic scars are more likely to occur in areas with high tension and frequent activities, such as the chin, front of the sternum, deltoid muscle, upper back, elbows, hips, knees, ankle joints, and dorsum of the feet.

2. Age: Young people are more likely to develop hypertrophic scars, especially those aged 10-20 years old. This is mainly due to the vigorous growth of tissues during puberty, strong post-traumatic reactivity, and high skin tension.

3. Skin pigment: People of color have more pigment cells and are more susceptible to irritation. The incidence of keloids in black people is 9 times that of white people. It is more likely to occur during the period of pituitary physiological activity, such as adolescence and pregnancy.

4. Infection: repeated infection, long-term wound exposure, excessive proliferation of granulation tissue, and prone to hypertrophic scars or keloids;

5. Foreign matter falls into the wound: dust, talcum powder, fiber, and residues of hair follicles, sebaceous glands, and sweat glands can cause tissue reactions and lead to scar hyperplasia;

6. The angle between the surgical incision and the skin: If the incision is perpendicular to the skin, the scar will be the thinnest after healing; the greater the inclination angle, the wider the dermal scar will be and the more obvious the skin deformity will be.

Scar repair:

1. Apply topical medication

Scar ointments can be classified into ordinary moisturizing creams, anti-scar and anti-inflammatory creams containing steroids, moisturizing and softening creams containing silicone, and melanin-removing ointments used to lighten pigmentation. Since scars are normal connective fibrous tissues that heal wounds, they are inevitably formed and exist at any wound site. Topical ointments applied to the scar area are limited to minor therapeutic effects such as moisturizing, softening connective tissue, and lightening pigments, thereby improving and beautifying the appearance of the scar.

2. Silicone patch therapy

Silicone patches are applied externally to hypertrophic scars to prevent and treat scar hyperplasia. After the self-adhesive silicone patch is applied to the scar surface, the evaporation of water on the scar surface can be reduced, the hydration of scar tissue can be increased, and the permeability of water-soluble proteins and various water-soluble inflammatory protein mixtures on the scar surface can be increased, so that these water-soluble proteins can diffuse on the skin surface, the water-soluble proteins and products in the interstitium can be reduced, the fluid pressure can be reduced, and the maturation of scars can be promoted, and the scars can be softened and flattened, so that the color of scar tissue becomes lighter and closer to the natural skin color. Silicone patch therapy has been widely used since the 1980s and is currently the only proven effective scar self-treatment method. Its non-invasive treatment method has extremely low rates of sensitization and other complications.

3. Laser treatment

Laser treatment is suitable for superficial depressed and hypertrophic scars. When the laser acts on the skin, the scar part on the skin surface is affected by the laser, and other tissues are not affected. These parts that are not affected by the laser will accumulate more collagen and elastin, which help the regeneration and rearrangement of collagen in the dermis. In addition, laser irradiation will produce photothermal effect, photochemical effect, pressure effect, electromagnetic field effect and biostimulation effect on skin tissue, so that the damaged dead tissue at the skin scar will be rapidly pyrolyzed, gasified, or broken into tiny fragments, which will be swallowed by phagocytes in the body and excreted from the body, thus achieving the purpose of smoothing the scar.

4. Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy is suitable for superficial hypertrophic scars. When the scar area is treated with radiation therapy, superficial X-rays and beta rays can significantly reduce the number of fibroblasts in the scar tissue, impair their function, reduce the synthesis of collagen fibers and matrix, and increase the decomposition of collagen fibers, thereby flattening and softening the scar area.