The care of keloids starts with two things: prevention of infection and relief of symptoms.
During the summer months, infection prevention is the top priority in keloid care. The uneven surface of keloid scars can easily hide dirt and grime. Due to the proliferation and extrusion of keloids, skin structures such as sebaceous glands near the lesion become distorted and deformed. Once the lumen is distorted, the contents cannot be discharged smoothly, and if the opening is blocked by dirt, the contents will accumulate because they cannot be discharged. These accumulated contents are delicious for the bacteria in the lumen, which then multiply and lead to infection. In summer, the skin glands secrete a lot and the body surface is humid, which can easily cause the accumulation of gray scale. The area should be washed frequently with water, and the scar crevices should be cleaned with a cotton swab or a small soft brush each time, so that no dirt is left in the crevices.
Pain and itching are common symptoms of keloid scars. These symptoms can be aggravated by changes in environmental conditions such as local temperature and humidity. Due to the high temperature in summer, local sweat impregnation and the expansion of local skin blood vessels in the keloid caused by high temperature often become the cause of itchy symptoms. Therefore, it is important to avoid humid and high temperature environments in summer, and to dress in breathable, sweat-absorbing clothing that is frequently changed so that the keloid is always in a fresh and moist environment. When the local pain and itchiness is aggravated by high temperatures, appropriate cold compresses can relieve the pain and itchiness to a certain extent.
In addition, summer clothing is thin and poorly protective against injury, while keloids often protrude from the surface of the torso, making them more vulnerable to injury. Once the injury occurs, it is easy to cause the keloid to proliferate and expand. Therefore, prevention of traumatic injury is also an important part of keloid care in summer.
It is also important to mention that summer is also an important season to prevent keloid formation. This is because many keloid scars are caused by skin infections, and summer is a high season for skin infections such as folliculitis. Therefore, it is important to take special care to avoid the occurrence and aggravation of skin infections in the summer to avoid keloid scars at the source. For skin infections such as folliculitis, alcohol wet compresses (alcohol soaked in clean gauze or paper towels and applied to the infected area 2-3 times a day for 30 minutes) can be used to control the infection as soon as possible.