What to do if you have a scar from an injury

  It is inevitable that people will be injured throughout their lives. But after a trauma, unless it is particularly minor, it is inevitable that scars will be left behind. Therefore, people are particularly concerned about how to make scars grow lighter after trauma. The following is a discussion of the latest technology on how to reduce the growth of scars after trauma and reduce the disability rate of scars and their impact on appearance.  According to the traditional viewpoint, the first step after trauma should be to seek immediate medical attention for surgical debridement and treatment. In the case of burns, the patient should be treated in a burn unit. Timely and proper surgical treatment will promote the wound to heal as soon as possible, which will also reduce the probability of scar growth. Topical or oral anti-scar medications are needed after the incision heals, combined with compression with elastic bandages if necessary. Wait 3-6 months for the scar to stabilize and then depending on the situation, if the recovery is not good, plastic repair treatment is needed.  With the advancement of technology, the newly introduced dye laser and minimally invasive plasma technology can intervene in the areas that show signs of scar growth early after the injury, thus the extent of scar growth can be reduced and surgical repair can be avoided later. About 1 month after injury, the incision begins to appear red, hard, and in some patients, the scar may be raised and painful, in which case it is time to consider starting dye laser or plasma treatment. The dye laser causes the redness of the scar to diminish or disappear by embolizing the capillaries.  With the blood vessels embolized, the scar loses its nutritional supply of blood and the momentum of proliferation is reduced. In contrast, plasma technology, which is specifically designed for scarring, alters the collagen arrangement of the scar (collagen is the building block of scars) and peels away the thickened scar, resulting in a softer and flatter scar. With the dye laser and advanced plasma technology, it is possible to reduce the degree of scar growth and improve the appearance of the scar, saving some patients from having to undergo another surgery. Don’t forget that both the dye laser and plasma are a minimally invasive scar revision technique – no bleeding, no bandaging, and very low risk.  After years of dedicated research and extensive clinical practice and in combination with these emerging new technologies, the idea of early comprehensive scar prevention and treatment is proposed, that is, comprehensive intervention for the emergence of scars at an early stage of scar formation after injury. In addition to the aforementioned dye laser and plasma techniques and traditional compression therapy, topical, oral and intra-scar injections are also used. Of course, the circumstances of each injury are very different, and each person’s constitution is even more different, so a personalized plan will be developed for each individual to achieve the best results.