The healing of a wound or an incision is an inflammatory process which can “slip” and cause so-called “hypertrophic” scars which represent an aesthetic or functional discomfort. A few rules to follow to promote good quality healing.
How to ensure that following an injury causing a wound or after a surgical intervention the skin is not marked by an excessive scar? First put things in the right order: “We tend to call a freshly sutured wound a scar, that’s a mistake!“, warns Richard Zloto, plastic surgeon. For this practitioner, “a freshly sutured incision is above all an incision, or a wound or a loss of substance, we can only speak of a scar when it is actually healed”. It is obvious that it is nevertheless important to remember since it is thanks to the respect of this “timing” in the healing of a wound that we can act opportunely to prevent it from causing a hypertrophic scar.
This type of scar is linked to a more intense and longer healing process than normal. This usually takes a few months before the skin is almost back to how it was before the wound or incision. But when the inflammation is more important and the healing extends over several months and sometimes up to a year, there is a risk that the scar will be hypertrophic, that is to say with a surface, a relief and a color more marked than usual. which is not only an aesthetic problem but can also cause pain or discomfort in certain movements.
It is therefore when the healing process is well advanced that we can intervene to hope that it leads to a good quality scar. And there are several things to do… or not to do!
What to do :
– It is necessary in priority avoid “mobilizing” the scarthat is to say that it is essential to “let her rest as much as possible”as Richard Zloto points out, in order to “allow the skin to heal in a good position”. It is obviously sometimes complicated when the wound that generated the scar is, for example, on a joint. But this is the first precaution to take.
– The massage represent a very important treatment to prevent a hypertrophic scar. “They must be systematic to allow the scar to regain its flexibility”, specifies Richard Zloto. But if it is a “good adjuvant” to avoid adhesions and restore flexibility, the massage remains however, according to the surgeon, “insufficient if the scar must evolve into a hypertrophic mode”risk linked to a genetic predisposition or to its location on certain parts of the body such as the back, the thorax or… the ears.
What you should not do :
– The worst thing to do when a wound or incision turns into a scar is expose oneself to the sun. What can seem effective to restore unity to the color of the skin “only adds an inflammatory process to the inflammatory phenomenon of healing and promotes the evolution of the scar towards a hypertrophic mode”warns Richard Zloto.
– The smoking is also an enemy of good healing. “In smokers, the skin is less well vascularized, which leads to poor healing.says the practitioner.
– Some diets to lose weight can also interfere with healing when they are poorly balanced.
Pathologies or treatments that interfere with healing:
– There are diseases or treatments that increase the risk of a bad evolution of a scar. These are in particular the diabetes which, through its effects on blood circulation, disrupts or even prevents the normal course of the healing process.
– Patients treated with immunosuppressants or the radiotherapy they too risk seeing their healing thwarted.
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