Ear Lobe Surgery: Q&A
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Risk of Hypertrophic Scars from Earlobe Surgery?
I want an earlobe repair or reduction surgery. However, I have a hypertrophic scar on my shoulder for the past 3 years. I don't know how I got it. It's 1.5 cm long. No surgery or injury that I can remember. I am 30 years old. I am scared of keloid formation once I carry out an earlobe reduction surgery. How scared should I realistically be?
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23 Doctor Answers |
Asked by
rim78
in N/A
+2
Poor scarring in earlobe surgery is uncommon
The skin and tissue quality of the earlobe is very different from that of your shoulder. Also, the stresses and pulling on the incision between the two areas are dramatically different. So while your shoulder scar, perhaps expectantly, became wide and hypertrophic such a result on your earlobe is very unlikely. With the rare exception of treating true earlobe keloids, I have never seen a hypertrophic earlobe scar develop from either earlobe reduction or the repair of ear piercings...
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Earlobe scar hypertrophy
The shoulder is one of the worst areas of the body in terms of scarring; I would not extrapolate a poor shoulder scar to conclude that you will automatically scar badly on the earlobe. Keloid formation is a different process from scar hypertrophy. If you did not form keloids from the ear piercing or laceration, it is highly unlikely that you will form a keloid mass at the site of earlobe repair. In terms of scar hypertrophy, this can be controlled by kenalog injection...
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Earlobe surgery and scars
Hypertrophic scarring (thick wide scar) is different from keloids (scar mass that keeps growing well outside the boundaries of the scar). If you have not had keloids develop in the ear area before from previous piercings, then it is unlikely that you would develop keloid in your ear now.
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Keloids or Hypertrophic Scars after Earlobe Surgery
If you have earlobe piercings and do not have any hypertrophic scarring or keloids from that, there would seem to be a lower likelihood that you would form keloids after repair of your earlobes. However, you have a hypertrophic scar or keloid on your shoulder so that would suggest a propensity to forming hypertrophic scars or keloids. I have seen a number of keloids on the earlobes of people. Most of these are African-Americans, and most of these patients also had keloids on the jawline or...
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Earlobe repair
If you do not form keloids, then the risk is very low to have problems once the earlobe is repaired. Good luck.
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Hypertrophic keloid scars of the earlobe are Uncommon
While keloid scars can occur on earlobes, they are uncommon.
Despite having a keloid scar on your shoulder, If you have already had your earlobes pierced and have no keloids there, then it is not likely that they would occur with repair of the earlobe holes and reduction of the earlobe.
However, there is no absolute certainty about scars.
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Risk of keloids with ear lobe surgery
If you have a tendency to make keloids and hypertrophic scars, especially unprovoked ones like you describe, you will have a tendency to form a keloid after ear lobe surgery. There is no way to predict or prevent keloid formation.
Once it starts, it may be minimized by intralesional injections of triamcinolone. But keloidal tissue can be aggressive and grow despite our best efforts to control it.
Please consider carefully whether you wish to take that risk.
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Should you worry about keloids with earlobe repair?
If your ears are pierced and you do not have any abnormal scarring of the earlobes, it is highly unlikely that earlobe repair or reduction will result in hypertrophic or keloid scarring.
If your ears are pierced,and you do have elevated scars, then you are at significant risk for unsatisfactory scarring with earlobe surgery. If you choose to proceed with surgery, you may wish to have steroid injections performed before, during, and/or after the repair.
If yours have never...
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Keloid prevention
Keloids are a common occurance in the ear lobes for some people. It is usually associated with unsanitory earpiercing and subclinical infection and chronic inflammtion resulting from that. However ther are ways to prevent recurrance of Keloid following ear lob surgery. Using basic principles of plastic surgery in wound handling and repair, application of Bleomycin to the wound before closure, post operative Kenalog injection, applicationof silcone scar...
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Scarring After Earlobe Surgery Uncommon
Scarring after any earlobe repair is rather uncommon. The wounds are generally closed with very minimal tension. In addition, if you notice a hypertrophic scar or keloid forming, early intervention with steroid injections or other treatments can often prevent an undesireable result.
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