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How we best reduce the size of scars is an important question as scars will in most all cases come from any injury or a cut we experience. Three types of scars encompass the full-range of how they can surface on one's skin. Atrophic, pitted scars will leave the cut or injury indented. Raised, hypertrophic scars will develop onto the injury or cut but not extending beyond its borders. After that there are keloid scars. These raise above and beyond the borders to regions of the skin that were not originally injured. This is the toughest sort of scar to treat for various reasons.

In the first instance the causes of keloid scars can range from piercings to cuts to burns to inflammatory reactions resulting from acne. Next they may only begin to form after a prolonged timespan has elapsed since the original injury. The third and most dispiriting issue is removing the scar successfully through surgery will very easily cause a new keloid scar to expand over the surgery wound!

These factors of this sort of scar call for a deeper investigation as to how to properly treat them.

Finding an Effective Treatment for Keloids

Doctors commonly use additional treatments to accompany surgery that decrease that chances of a post keloid treatment recurrence. The primary techniques associated with this approach are steroid injections and compression therapy.

Steroid injections can be used both before, during, or after the sugery with the benefit of flattening the scar's size. Long-acting cortisone (steroid) shots are injected on average once a month with the difference in size visible in three to six months time. A positive aspect is the cortisone treats the scar with only a very small amount of it entering the bloodstream.

Compression bandages are believed to work from restricting oxygen to the scar which cuts down on the biological process that leads to the development of keloid scars. They are custom made garments that are made so they are worn twenty four hours a day and changed once a week for a period of six to eighteen months. They have a track record of successfully bringing down the proportions of the scar but the effort and time is very consuming.

How to Remove Keloids Without the Use of Surgery