Keloid and hypertrophic scars

Louisiana residents who suffer from injuries due to a car accident may end up dealing with particularly sturdy or visible scars. Among those are keloid scars, which can be extremely noticeable and may cause a lot of pain.

WebMD states that keloid scars are the result of overly-aggressive healing, or a healing process that has had interference. Obstructions to the healing process like infections or injuries that aren’t properly stitched can cause these scars. Keloid scars are considered aggressive as well, because they’ll extend beyond the range of the original site of injury. They can continue to grow after the injury itself has healed, and may become large enough to cause a person to have difficulty with mobility. This is especially true if the scar is near an area that sees a lot of movement, like joints.

MedScape shows that hypertrophic scars, on the other hand, behave in a less aggressive manner. Though they exhibit similar signs as keloid scarring like discoloration and raised or textured surfaces, they don’t extend outside of the original area of injury. Additionally, they will eventually stabilize. This opens the opportunity for them to regress in size as time goes on, reducing the possibility that extreme measures will need to be taken in order to treat the scar tissue.

Similar treatments can be applied to both, however. Surgical removal or treatments like dermabrasion or laser surgery can be used to both flatten the appearance of these raised scars and reduce the discoloration. This allows for the scar’s visual impact to be diminished, potentially bringing relief to the sufferer.