Can Liposuction Cause Internal Keloids?

Dear Dlite
Many people think they form keloids and in fact they don't. Keloids are exuberant scars that spill outside of the area where the skin was injured. A much more common situation is a hypertrophic scar. This is a thick, unattractive, ropy scar but it stays in the track of the injured skin. I think a large concern for me treating someone with darker skin with liposuction is a phenomenon know as post inflammatory hyperpigmenation. Even the needle marks used to inject the local anesthestic can stimulate hypergimenation. Some of this may fade in time, but some may remain and this an be frustrating.

I am not aware that scarring has occurred in the subcutaneous tissues where the liposuction cannula traverses. Certainly, the skin's insertion sites can develop a hypertrophic scar or keloid as this is trauma through the dermis. There is some friction during the liposuction movement of the cannula in the skin, not the fatty layer. The possibilities of developing significant keloids in the insertion sites of the skin might one change their mind about having liposuction.