In the clinic, I am sometimes asked by patients who have had surgery elsewhere: Dr. Luo, when my stitches were first removed, the incision was quite thin, but why did the scar become wider and wider later? The answer to this question requires a little knowledge: human tissues are active, unlike sutures, which are sewn on and ready to go. The tensile strength of a skin incision is only about 10% of normal skin at 2 weeks after suturing, and it takes half a year for the strength to gradually return to 80% of normal skin. Therefore, it can be seen that our new incision is very fragile in the early stage (1 to 3 months) after the surgery, and if it is not protected and the surrounding skin is allowed to exert pulling force on it, the new scar will be pulled wider and wider. And too much tension will give the skin a false signal that will stimulate it to produce more scar tissue to counteract this tension. This is why after each skin lump and scar removal surgery I repeatedly emphasize the need to keep the incision in a low tension state and to take tension reduction measures. Some of my patients have bought their own scar creams before surgery, but in fact these applied scar medications do not have the effect of reducing the wound tension, and the patients think that everything is fine after applying them, instead they ignore the most important thing of reducing the tension of the incision, which is actually the most important thing in the early postoperative period, and casually move the surgical site to widen the scar. Once a wide scar is formed, no scar medicine or laser treatment can make it thin again. I think we can all understand the reason: more expensive scar medicine cannot transform the scar into normal skin, and more advanced laser, whose basic principle is high temperature cautery, cannot turn the formed scar into normal skin, so prevention is important! If you can actively cooperate within 1-3 months after the surgery, move less in the surgical area, and insist on the external use of the tension reduction tape or skin tension reducer, a very fine scar will eventually be formed, and only then, if there is a protrusion of the scar, it is necessary to use external scar ointment or (laser) grinding, so that the protrusion can be reduced and flattened to achieve the best recovery effect of fine and flat. Therefore, I do not advocate the use of scar creams in the early post-operative period, because it is not a good idea to use external reduction measures afterwards, and it is better to take different methods at different stages. How do you do the reduction measures? The following is a list of common methods that, as with many diseases, require a joint effort by the surgeon and the patient, and must be strictly followed during the first month after surgery, preferably for three months. Intraoperative tension reduction measures: (done by the surgeon) 1. Minimize the local tension of the surgical incision by designing the incision as close as possible to the skin fold line or in the direction of loose skin tension (RSTLs); 2. firmly sutured, not just superficially, just with the so-called non-removable sutures or glue bonding, while ignoring or even not doing internal suturing. Post-surgical measures to reduce tension are: (under the guidance of the doctor by the patient to complete) 1, try to avoid the activities of the surgical site, such as facial surgery, the affected side less chewing, not too big expression, and limbs and neck position to reduce the activities, especially in the joint parts; 2, the use of cosmetic (reduction of tension) tape, this often in the American drama, foreign facial surgery are directly after the cosmetic tape, light and breathable, but also Reduce skin tension function. All parts of the body can be used; 3, the use of skin tension reducer. Mainly used for the torso and other flat parts, need strong tension reduction force; 4, in the use of skin tension reduction before the use of alcohol or chloramphenicol or neosporin or saline and other clean skin, do not apply ointment, otherwise tension reduction tape or skin tension reducer can not be affixed. Note: 1, must be perpendicular to the cut to paste the beauty tape, in order to effectively reduce the tension; 2, small tweezers preferably metal toothless small tweezers, available in pharmacies and medical supply stores; 3, in the wound before the removal of stitches to paste the beauty tape, the skin around the cut and small tweezers should be disinfected with alcohol, after the removal of the stitches do not need to disinfect, wipe clean with purified water, dry and then you can paste; 4, after the removal of stitches beauty The adhesive tape can be pasted on a layer, paste too thick is not necessary; 5, beauty tape if you run out and can not buy a moment to the hospital, you can buy online, it is recommended not to buy too cheap. It is too late to use breathable band-aids as a temporary substitute; 6, if the paste where the skin reddening is obvious, belong to the skin does not adapt, you can not paste a few days to let the skin rest and then paste. Note: 1, after the wound removal each time the removal of the beauty tape do not use alcohol, so as not to stimulate the skin, switch to ordinary pure water can be, or by washing the face, bathing to let it fall off on its own; 2, must be parallel to the direction of the cut to remove the beauty tape, vertical tear tape there will be the risk of tearing the cut; 3, beauty tape should not be frequently replaced, generally 3-5 days to replace once, depending on the temperature The beauty tape should be replaced once every 3-5 days, depending on the temperature, the cleanliness of the tape, whether there are still sticky and other factors. Note: 1, the use of skin tensioner direction, please refer to the beauty tape; 2, skin tensioner can be checked every two days, if loose as shown in Figure 6 can be properly tightened to play the role of tension reduction; 3, if the skin blisters indicate that the tensioner is too tight or skin intolerance, you can rest the skin first on the tensioner, the surface can be coated with eye ointment or Bactroban ointment to protect the blisters, to heal and then Use the tensioner and reduce the force appropriately.