Follow up: Will brief, accidental exposure to sun affect the end result for my gynecomastia incision scar? Pt. 2

It's likely that the sun exposure did not affect the healing or end-result of your surgery. If anything, the surgical site may be somewhat sensitive to the #sun light and may be irritated as a result. Following #Gynecomastia #surgery, your #incisions will go through a maturation #process. For the first few months they will be red and possibly raised and/or firm. As the scar matures, after 6-12 months, it becomes soft, pale, flat, and much less noticeable. You may experience numbness, tingling, burning, “crawling”, or other peculiar sensations around the surgical area. This is a result of the #healing of tiny fibers which are trapped in the incision site. These symptoms will disappear. Some people are prone to keloids, which is an abnormal scar that becomes prominent. If you or a blood relative has a tendency to keloid formation, please inform the doctor.

Generally sun exposure will not affect the scar quality, size or thickness, but can affect the color by causing hyper pigmentation in some cases.  I would generally recommend, in order to protect your scar from becoming too darkly pigmented, that you avoid suntanning and sunburns for at least a year after surgery.  

You should talk to your plastic surgeon about your concerns. I advise all my patients that it is very important to protect your incisions from the sun. Keep your chest completely covered until your incisions have closed (approx. 2 weeks). After that time, you must wear a high grade sunscreen on your incisions for a minimum of 12 weeks to ensure optimal healing of the scars.#gynecomastiaremoval#malebreastreduction#gynecomastiaremovalpostop

No, there should not be any negative effect on your scar following a brief accidental exposure to the sun. 

Trauma to the scar they can increase inflammation may affect the final outcome. This would require long-term exposure to ultraviolet light.

Hi mitchman4949,Thanks for the follow up. I still do not think you need to worry about any long-term effect on the scar from the sun exposure you recieved. That being said, there is always a risk in any surgery that incisions do not heal ideally, but in your specific case I do not believe the sun exposure you are describing will be a contributing factor to the final result of your scar.Sincerely,Dr. Dadvand