Scar Revision

    Many people are finding that living with a scar is more of a problem to them. There are many types of scar that from as a result of severe acne or a terrible burn. Although there are many ways to treat them, no scar can ever be removed completely. The best we can do is to improve the appearance of a scar making it vague and less obvious when compared with the surrounding skin.

Scar Types

    Scar as a result of injury (such as a car accident or a burn) to the skin can be divided into five types according to their severity.

    Healed Scars are straight and flat which run parallel to the skin creases and look like natural skin.
    Slight Scars are slightly raised and redder than the surrounding skin.
    Hypertrophic Scars tend to be thick, red, raised, and even itchy or paining. They remain within the boundaries of the original incision or wound and improve on their own after some time.
    Keloids are thick, puckered, darkened and itchy cluster of scar tissue that grow beyond the edges of the incision or wound. They occur when the body overproduces the tough, fibrous protein known as collagen, which grow like tumors. They are common on the shoulders and breasts.
    Pigmented Scars are caused by the sand or other tiny articles remain in the wound. It is different from other methods to treat this kind of scars. The shallow one can be removed by laser while the deep one can be removed by surgery.  

Scar excision

    When the scar is long and thin, the scar excision is the best choice to remove it. In this case, the surgeon will remove the excess scar tissue, and reposition the incision so that it heals in a less noticeable pattern. About six months after the surgery, the surgical scar will become vague and look similar to the natural skin in color. It will get completely healed several months late.

Skin grafting

    Skin grafting is considered when the scarred area is too large. The scar is surgically removed and skin from a unnoticeable part of the body like buttock or scalp are transferred to cover the injured area. Since the texture of the transferred skin differ from the surrounding skin, a supported treatment may be necessary for a period of time in order to make sure the wound heals properly.

Tissue expansion

    Tissue expansion is to make the surrounding skin expanded so that it can cover the scarred area. The scar is surgically removed after the surrounding natural skin have been expanded for two or three months and then covered by them. For instance, if there are burned scars on the face, the surgeon will first expand the nearest chin skin, then removed the scars and cover them with the expanded skin.

    Today, plastic surgeons have many tools at their disposal to reduce and treat scars. Since scars differ in many types, it is challenging to the professional plastic surgeons to revises them. It is important for the patient to be well-communicated with the doctor and find a best therapy to remove the scar.