Cosmetic surgical treatment of cigarette burn scars

  Cigarette burns are a type of burn injury and their posterior scarring is a common clinical condition, with most patients seeking care because of the cosmetic and psychological impact. Since burns have various causes and vary in size, arrangement and distribution, treatment should also vary from person to person.  Treatment method: In order to achieve better cosmetic results and minimize the damage and destruction of normal skin, different procedures are chosen according to different typologies.  1. Point-intensive type: The distance between adjacent scar points or the amount of residual normal skin is measured before surgery, if it is less than the radius of one scar, or if the scar points are densely connected, you can choose to remove all the scar and part of the normal skin tissue between them, sharply peel the subcutaneous tissue on both sides of the incision about 1 – 2 cm to reduce the skin-to-close The wound is closed with 4-0 or 6-0 Prolene sutures and fixed with suture-free tape; 2. Point-like uniform type: the spacing between the scar points is between 1r and 3r, and a pair of triangular flaps are designed according to the normal skin between the scar points, with round excision of the cigarette burn scar, sharp stripping on both sides of the incision, and suturing as above. To reduce the tension at the tip of the triangular flap, sutures can be obliquely sutured along the direction of the connecting line of the flap tip; 3. Pointed discrete type: between the points of the scar.  Results All patients healed well after surgery without infection; the final anastomosis in patients with the dotted discrete type. The final anastomosis was a linear scar, the final “Z”-shaped incision scar was formed in patients with dotted uniform type, and the final anastomosis was a segmental linear scar in patients with dotted discrete type; among them, 187 patients had satisfactory results, and 20 patients with sub-dotted intensive type had late linear scar pulling the function and appearance of the pubic line, and local flap reshaping surgery was performed again, with good postoperative recovery. recovery was good. All patients were followed up for 3-27 months with acceptable appearance and function and improved psychological status.  Cigarette burns can be divided into active burns and passive burns, the causes of active burns mainly include psychological repression, drunkenness and promiscuity, self-mutilation tendency, unconscious injuries, etc. Most patients are still conscious, so the burns are mainly located in the upper and lower limbs, with the forearm of the upper limb being the most frequent, and the distribution is relatively regular; the causes of passive burns mainly include violent abuse, psychopathic and other malicious behaviors, and those who are scalded are mostly coerced, while The abusers are mostly psychologically abnormal or malicious, so the scalding sites can be located throughout the body, with scattered or irregular distribution, to the face, chest and perineum and other appearance parts and private parts. Cigarette burns generally appear as one or more round or oval skin lesions at the site of the burn, and later they mainly present as round or oval scars, which may show scarring, hyperpigmentation or depigmentation, with the most fundamental effect being aesthetic. Most patients are introverted, cautious and unconfident in their interactions with others, especially those with cigarette burns in private areas, and have a psychological fear. Therefore, for patients with cigarette burn scars, not only the involvement of a plastic and cosmetic surgeon is needed, but also the assistance of a psychologist. The causes of cigarette burn scars are so diverse and the distribution arrangement is so complex that it is difficult to give an exact clinical classification. By analyzing the characteristics of numerous patients’ cases, we found that a preliminary classification can be made from a point perspective, and for more complex cigarette burn scars, a further classification can be made from different axial directions with the help of a preliminary classification, which can also be helpful for treatment.  In this paper, we propose a concept of radius (r) in performing clinical classification. Although all cigarette burn scars are not necessarily regular in shape and uniform in size, most are still somewhat comparable and the concept of radius is only an average result. Also, the spacing between the scars is not fixed and uniform, and can be considered as an essentially average result.  With such a concept of scar radius and scar spacing, a more objective quantification can be performed, which is a guideline for clinical classification and treatment. For the classification of cigarette burn scars into dotted dense type, dotted uniform type and dotted discrete type, it mainly comes from the actual clinical observation and operation. There are relatively few patients with dotted dense type, and there is less normal skin left between the scars, which is more difficult to preserve and utilize, so the method of straight line excision and suturing is preferable. Patients with dotted uniform type are relatively more frequent, and the spacing of the scar is between 1r and 3r. If the spacing is too small, it belongs to dotted dense type, while the spacing is more than 3r, it is more difficult to design triangular flap, the movement range of the triangular flap is small, the shape of the later anastomosis is not beautiful, and the damage to the normal skin is also larger. The dotted discrete type has the most patients, and most sites simply have a single isolated cigarette burn scar that is given separate excision sutures without damaging the surrounding normal tissue.  A more desirable result can be achieved by choosing the appropriate method for the different distribution of cigarette burn scars. For patients with punctiform intensive type, if the excised scar is long, there may be contracture of linear scar in the later stage, and if needed, it can be reshaped and repaired in the second stage. For patients with complex cigarette burn scars, all three types may exist and can be classified differently and treated with different surgical methods according to the radius of the scar and the spacing of the scar, without having to stick to one type and one surgical treatment. For exposed areas such as the face, the surgical incision is minimized and the most normal tissue is preserved. For near-joint areas of the limb, the incision can be designed in a “Z” shape to reduce linear scar contracture later on.  In the later stages of treatment, scar prevention measures such as compression with an elastic sleeve and related scar prevention medications should also be taken. In summary, we believe that the radius and spacing measurement and classification of cigarette burn scars are scientific, and the use of triangular flap technique to make full use of the normal skin between the scars can achieve better aesthetic and functional results, which is worth promoting.