| Keloid : Causes and Treatments
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Keloid : Causes and Treatments
Keloid is an excessive growth of scar tissue to form a thick, solid nodule. Keloid takes shape at the point where there has been skin injury before, like burns or lacerations. It can occur at normal skin also and may be one or multiple in number. Keloid formation is common in dark skinned people but a rare sight in fair skinned ones.
Though both sexes are equally susceptible to keloids but it is observed that young women get more keloids. It is so because women go for more piercings. People of African descent get more keloids.
Symptoms of Keloids:
Normally keloids are rubbery, firm, fibrous nodules. With increasing time, keloids can become itchy, tender to touch and become large. Color of keloids may vary from pink to flesh colored to red or dark brown. Keloids are not contagious. Though keloids are neither harmful nor painful but look very ugly and people want to get rid of them.
Some common symptoms of keloids are
· Burning
· Itchy feeling at the point of keloid
· Formation of nodes or raised surface
· Flesh colored, red or pink
· inflammation and tenderness
How do Keloids form:
Whenever there is skin injury or scar, skin cells grow back to fill the gap created by injury. Normally growth of cells at the point of injury is stopped when scar tissue comes in level with skin contour. At this point multiplication of scar tissue cells is stops. But if this multiplication is not stopped at this point and cells keep growing even more than needed to cover the scar, they form overgrown scar or keloid. Keloid is raised above rest of the skin. It is of irregular shape and keeps growing to become large even up to some centimeters, in some cases . Keloids form by overreacting of tissue cells in response of injury.
Normally, connective tissue in injured skin is repaired by generation of collagen. When excessive collagen forms in upper layer of skin, dermis, to repair the connective tissue, keloids result.
Some people confuse keloids with hypertrophic scars, which are purely different. In hypertrophic scars, there is raised thick smooth area over the skin. It generally disappears within one year or more. There may be red, raised excessive formation of connective tissue over any surgical incision.
What are the Causes of Keloid :
Some common Causes of Keloid are :
1 Keloid formation is more likely in people with deficiency or an excess of melanocyte hormone (MSH)
2 Other causes are less amount of mature collagen and soluble collagen is more.
3 If a person has tendency of keloid formation, risk increases with exposure to sun
4 It can be hereditary disposition also. The tendency of keloid formation may be inherited. If you have somebody in your near family who has keloid then you have chances to get keloids.
5 Skin trauma can lead to keloid formation
6 Scars from vaccination, acne or chickenpox can form keloids
7 People between age group of 10 to 30 years are more susceptible to keloids
Treatment of Keloid
There is no 100% effective treatment of keloid. There are treatments available with different degree of effectiveness. Though surgery is prescribed to remove the scar but it has risk of reoccurrence of even larger keloid than previous one.
Different methods to remove keloids are:
1 Cryotherapy: In this method, medicines are injected to freeze the skin and sludge the under skin circulation; local frostbite is created. Skin gets sloughed.
2 Administering corticosteroid injections which should be repeated every few weeks
3 Surgically removing the scar
4 Silicone gel dressings are applied. It is safe and painless treatment. But patients may feel itchiness with continuous wearing of dressing.
5 Radiation therapy can be used to reduce the scar formation. But it should be given just after a surgery while the wound is trying to heal itself.
6 Laser therapy can also be used to treat the keloids but it cannot reduce the bulge; it can reduce the redness.
7 Pressure bandages are applied for long term compression. It softens the keloids.
8 Gels containing Allium cepa extract, Heparin and Allantoin are applied after surgery, piercings, burns etc. to prevent formation of keloids.
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