How we best reduce the size of scars is an important question as scars will in most every case develop from any cuts and injuries we experience. Three different types of scars cover the full range of how they can appear on one's skin. Atrophic, pitted scars will leave the cut or injury indented. Raised, hypertrophic scars will raise above the injury or cut but not beyond its borders. Then there are keloid scars. These expand above and beyond the edges of the injury or cut to regions of the skin that were originally not injured. This is the most challenging sort of scar to treat for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost the sources of keloid scars can range from burns to cuts to piercings to inflammatory reactions caused by acne. Next they may only begin to form after much time has elapsed since the original injury. The third and most dispiriting frustration is removing the scar successfully by means of surgery will very easily cause a new keloid scar to develop over the surgery wound!

These features of this sort of scar call for a deeper investigation as to how best to care for them.

Finding an Effective Treatment for Keloids

Doctors commonly use complementary treatments to accompany surgery that reduce that chances of a post keloid treatment recurrence. The main techniques involved with this method are compression therapy and steroid injections.

The injection of steroids can be used both before, during, or after the sugery with the effect of flattening the scar's form. Long-acting cortisone (steroid) shots are injected on average once a month with the difference in size apparent in three to six months time. Their advantage is the cortisone treats the scar with only a very small amount of it entering the bloodstream.

Compression bandages are believed to work from limiting oxygen to the scar which reduces the biological process that leads to the development of what are 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 decreasing the proportions of the scar but the commitment is very consuming.

How to Remove Keloids Without the Use of Surgery