Skin graft scars

Margaret Weiss, MD answers: Removal of leg scars from skin grafts?

When I was 13 months old, I was burned with hot scalding water and got 3rd degree burns on both of my legs (knees down). They had to obviously do skin grafts to replace the skin that was burned. Is there any way to help or remove scarring from the skin grafts? They are very large, almost the length of my leg, rectangle-shaped, 2 on one side of my leg, and 3 on the other.


Margaret Weiss, MD
3 months ago

This is very hard to treat, as when burns are deep enough to require skin grafts, the process usually removes all the follicles from the area treated (both the burn and the graft site).  That removes the source of melanocytes, the pigment producing cells.  Sometimes the edges of a scar can be blurred by use of the Fraxel laser, but that won't make a difference in a large white graft scar.  Sometimes, a medical type tattoo can partially match the color, but often doesn't look natural. Unfortunately, this is very hard to treat.

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