Facelift on 12/20/17; left with red, ropey scars, ear deformities; itching at the incision. Advice? (photos)

Plastic surgery scars require attention after surgery so that they remain cosmetically-appealing and barely noticeable. In our office, we use a protocol for scars that minimizes their activity in the 6-8 weeks after surgery. If you have late plastic surgery scars, you may also require laser and RF therapy to help reduce the longterm effects of the scarring. Keloids, hypertrophic scars, widened scars, red scars, and hyperpigmented scars all require scar modulation with topical creams followed by lasers and RF therapy. Topical skincare should be directed to a specific need, whether for pigmentation or hypertrophy and our office can guide you through the process to obtain the correct Plato’s Scar cream or Melarase cream for hypertrophy and discoloration. In terms of lasers, we would employ the vbeam laser for redness, Venus Viva RF, PRP microneedling, chemical peels, and Morpheus 8, fractional erbium, or fractional co2. All of these have their individual benefits. Most of all, we recommend you visit a solid plastic surgeon who understands surgical scar revision, laser therapy, and RF therapy for scars.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

Thank you for your question and photographs.  Unfortunately, you have formed some red, raised scars.  My advice is to consider a course of steroid injections, laser treatments, micro needling and/or scar revision.  Best of luck.

Your surgeon certainly sounds qualified, and I advise that you stay with him for your further care. Believe it or not, we have little control over your wound healing. A lot of this is determined by your genetics. It is difficult to determine ahead of time who will scar poorly. The majority of patients heal with barely visible scarring, but some do not. The first step when I see scarring like yours is to inject steroids. You may need more than one treatment. This will reduce the pain and itching. If you don't respond as well as you would like, you and your surgeon can consider scar revision. This can be done under local anesthesia and is usually fairly minor. I wish you the best of luck.

Your scars will improve with Kenalog injection.  Once flattened, you can try microneedling.  If not flat, then a scar revision.  It's best to follow with your surgeon for these adjustments to your surgery. Scarring is often dependent on individual healing and not necessarily on the surgeon's technique.

Hi Mikkivee,Sorry to hear of your frustrations.  Looks like you've had some difficulty healing after the procedure.For the 'pulled' aspect of the earlobes, this will unlikely improve with any other treatment than revision.  But the raised scarring can oftentimes be improved with steroid injection and massage.  Microneedling and PRP may help as well.Not entirely clear why you went for hyperbaric oxygen treatments (numbness is normal after this procedure and usually resolves within a few months; did you have breakdown of skin around the incisions?), but I would wait at least an entire year before considering a revision procedure.Best wishes on your continued healing,Dr. Jay

in midstream?  Sounds like your surgeon is qualified and also fair in willing to scar revisions for free.  You will not find a better deal than that.  But why the HBOT???  Did you have major tissue loss too?  That would change the game plan from a simple scar revision to waiting as long as you can before jumping back in to attempt to make things better.  Sometimes us surgeons have 'bad days' and things don't work out how we planned... but any decent surgeon will want to opportunity to make their patient as happy as possible so let your surgeon do that for you.  Hope all the other things you were hoping for from this procedure has been accomplished.

Red, ropey scars after a facelift are a nuisance and often out of the surgeon's control (barring any complications that may have caused them). You were wise to choose a double board-certified plastic surgeon with a good online reputation. Has your surgeon suggested or injected steroid medication into the scars? This is a great starting point.