Is Hypertrophic Scars same as Keloids Scars? How to Deal with It?
Many people ask can hypertrophic scars turn into keloids; since the symptom and the appearance of the scar is quite similar. You need to note that hypertrophic and keloid are two different things, you can recognize it from the symptoms that occur to your skin. Keloid is caused by the overgrowing tissues that occur on the previous scar. Keloid can be recognized from its shiny and pink color, while hypertrophic tends to be redder than keloid. You can also identify keloid symptoms from the growth time of the scar, hypertrophic tend to stop after 8 months or less than 18 months; while keloid grows longer and larger. When you are having keloid, the scar on your skin tend to get bigger day after day compared to the original scar; it is quite different with hypertrophic who only grow around the scar and not more than it.
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How to identify keloid
Keloid mostly occurs on the abrasion area, it might appear because of pimples, burns, or insect bites. Keloid occur when the collagen which has function to heal the scars began to gather around the damage skin, even though the original scar heal; but the size of the scar is getting bigger and it will not stop until a couple of months or years. People with hypertrophic usually felt itchiness, especially when hypertrophic occur around the joint. But patients with keloid are recorded to have no complain about the pain, but since the size of the scar is getting bigger; they tend to have less confident when the scar is exploit to other people. From the previous study, it is shown that people with darker skin color and Polynesian have higher risk to suffer keloid. Females who are around her teenage or less than 30 years old also identify to have higher risk compare to a young man. Since it can be occur to anybody, we recommend you not to perform nonessential cosmetic surgery, tattoo, and piercing to minimalize your risk.
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How to treat keloid
Actually the treatments that need to be taken by the patients with keloid is quite similar with hypertrophic treatment. It can be treated with Occlusive dressings, Compression therapy, and Corticosteroids; modern researchers also found that applying 5-Fluorouracil, Doxorubicin (Adriamycin), Bleomycin, Verapamil, Retinoic acid, Imiquimod, Tacrolimus, Are also effective in reducing keloid. A corticosteroid injection which is usually applied to hypertrophic can also be applied to keloid patients, but it will work more effective if the patients are also taking the surgical treatment. But, taking the surgical treatment is also has its own risk, because a patients with keloid risk might form a new scar after the surgery; so it is not definitely effective. Taking laser treatment will only reduce the redness on your skin, but it will not understate the scar. Doctor usually recommends you to take silicone gel therapy for the first step, if it is not effective; they might recommend you to take pressure treatment or corticosteroid injections. Make sure to consult with your doctor before deciding which type of treatment that you want to get rid of your keloid.