How Do you Minimize Scars?

It is important to understand that scars will occur after surgery, and part of the appearance of a scar is dictated by your body and how you heal.  However, we work hard to minimize your scar and offer treatments to help with healing so that you have the best possible scenario for the appearance of your scar and the healing of your wound.

Minimizing the appearance of scars starts with reducing tension on the wound and aligning the skin carefully so that it heals in the best way.  We use a variety of methods to close wounds, and the best option for you will depend on the size and location of your wound.

If your wound is located in an area of the body where some "give" in the skin allows your wound to be closed in a straight line, this is the preferred way to close your wound.  We will work to align your wound in the natural lines of the body to allow for optimal healing. 

If your wound becomes large or is located in an area with too much tension to close it in a line, we will create a skin flap by making an incision next to your wound and rotating the healthy skin into your wound.  This creates a scar in a unique pattern that will ultimately heal in a more discrete way by reducing extensive tension on the wound. 

If your wound is located in an area that a primary closure or local flap is not possible or would cause a deformity, we will use a skin graft to close your wound.  Our first choice is to use a full-thickness skin graft, meaning that we will take a piece of "donor skin" from a discrete area on your body and place that over your wound.  We will use a special dressing to compress the skin graft to your wound to give it the best chance of healing, and we will give you detailed post-operative instructions to care for your skin graft.  With a full-thickness skin graft, you can expect a scar in the shape of your wound. 

If your wound is too large for us to use a full-thickness skin graft, then we will use a split-thickness skin graft.

For large wounds that are not able to be closed with any of the methods described above, we will use a split-thickness skin graft to close the wound.  For a split-thickness skin graft, we shave a thin layer of skin from your thigh and use it to cover your wound.  We will use a special dressing to compress the skin graft to your wound to give it the best chance of healing, and we will give you detailed post-operative instructions to care for your skin graft and your donor site wound.  With a split-thickness skin graft, you can expect a scar in the shape of your wound and it will have a divoted appearance due to thin donor skin needed to cover a larger area.