Burn Injury Resource Center
Treatment of keloid scars may be challenging and some patients may need more than one treatment option; others may need to repeat the treatment more than once. The available treatment options may include:
- Compression garments: the idea behind wearing compression garments is that these garments apply continuous pressure on the keloid scar which will help to flatten and improve the scar appearance. It is important to wear these garments in the early stages of scar formation as the scar will respond better when the compression garments are used since the beginning were the scar is still fresh and immature. Compression garments should not be loose and should be worn for 23 hours a day and taken only when bathing and during dressing change. Burned patients may be asked to wear the garments for years. Ask your treating physician for how long you should wear them.
- Surgery: surgical removal of keloids was traditionally recommended however, there is a high incidence of recurrence of the keloid scar (50%-100%) if surgery is not combined with other modalities of treatment. The recurrent keloid may be larger and more severe than the original one that was present. Surgical removal is done by excising the keloid and suturing the area to help close the wound or using skin graft is the area is big combined with another method such as silicone gel.