Scar Revision surgery
Scar is a blemish on beautiful face or body skin. It may occur following some injury, burn or infection in past.
As, it is an end result of any healing process, it is unavoidable. But, lack of perfection in suturing or occurrence of infection after suturing leads to formation of widened/ raised/ depressed or pigmented scar. Sometimes it distorts surrounding structures causing unsightly deformity particularly on face. Rarely, it may happen because of tendency of skin to form bad scar.
Plastic surgery helps you by reducing visibility or making it nearly invisible by certain surgical maneuvers/ alterations, i.e. replacement of an undesirable scar with a more pleasant and favorable scar.
Scar surgery is not merely re-suturing of skin but need delicate tissue handling and perfect tissue approximation, so, demands surgical expertise of a Plastic surgeon. Direction and location of scar is very important. Sometimes we need to change direction of scar to improve it by certain Plastic Surgery maneuvers like Z- Plasty, W- Plasty. Scar with much larger area are best treated surgically by Serial Excision or Tissue Expansion.
We make skin numb (pain free) by topical or local anesthesia. Big scar may need regional or general anesthesia.
After scar revision, the new scar is immature and takes about a year to mature. It is very important to follow the instructions of cosmetic surgeon to guide the scar to a more favorable outcome. Exposure to sunlight can induce hyper pigmentation (dark color) in an immature scar. Sunscreens may be prescribed and should be used as instructed.
Depending on individual cases, certain creams may be advised to be massaged locally over the scar area for several weeks to help smoothen and soften a scar.