Anti-keloid treatment and prevention

Options include silicone-based care, pressure in suitable locations, steroid injections into the scar, freezing, and selected laser procedures. Surgery may remove bulky tissue, but follow-up treatment is often planned because excision alone can trigger another keloid.

A keloid is an overgrowth of scar tissue that extends beyond the edges of the original injury. It may be firm, smooth, shiny, itchy, tender, or darker than nearby skin, and it can continue enlarging after the wound has closed.

Keloids may follow piercings, surgery, burns, cuts, injections, or inflamed acne, although a clear injury is not always remembered. A hypertrophic scar stays within the wound boundary, which can change the treatment discussion.

Tell clinicians about previous keloids before elective surgery, skin procedures, tattoos, or piercings. Once a wound has fully closed, a clinician may advise silicone gel or sheets; these should not be placed over an open or infected wound. Protecting the scar from sunlight can limit colour contrast.

Treatment is tailored to size, site, symptoms, skin tone, and earlier response. Steroid injections can soften raised tissue, pulsed dye laser may target redness, and fractional laser can help selected scars. Cryotherapy can reduce smaller lesions. Large or resistant growths may lead to a combined surgical and aftercare plan.

Arrange assessment when a scar is expanding, persistently painful or itchy, restricting movement, or affecting sleep and daily activities. Early discussion can be useful when the location makes growth difficult to manage.

Seek prompt care for spreading redness, warmth, pus, fever, an open sore, or bleeding that does not settle. A new lump without a known injury, rapid change, irregular ulceration, or an uncertain diagnosis should be examined rather than assumed to be a keloid.

Ask how the diagnosis was distinguished from another skin lump, which symptom the proposed treatment targets, and what aftercare follows each procedure. Discuss your history of scar growth and whether combined treatment is advised if removal is being considered.