Scar Healing?

[HairTodayGoneTmrw]

Hi,

 

What did your doctors tell you to do regarding your donor scars?

 

Mine said to leave it alone for about 7 days, then if i wanted, begin any topical cream treatment (neosporin, medirma, etc) that i wanted. I am just curious what the best route is to start the healing process. Should i wait until the sutures are out?

[HairTodayGoneTmrw]

Hi,

 

What did your doctors tell you to do regarding your donor scars?

 

Mine said to leave it alone for about 7 days, then if i wanted, begin any topical cream treatment (neosporin, medirma, etc) that i wanted. I am just curious what the best route is to start the healing process. Should i wait until the sutures are out?

[Dr. Timothy Carman]

HTGT;

Neosporin is an antibacterial agent that helps promote healing in the first 10 to 14 days by decreasing the bacterial counts along the suture line.

Mederma is a topical agent whose active ingredient is Allium cepa, or onion extract.

The facts are as follows:

Scars form on the skin through a three-stage process and this process can last up to two years after an injury. Many scientists are studying this wound-healing process in an attempt to find something that will make scars less visible. It is widely recognized that wounds heal best under moist conditions -- the skin fills in faster and scars are less visible.

 

In 2001, a study showed that onion extract used on rabbit ear scars improved collagen organization but didn't lead to a difference in scar appearance. So far, there have been three major controlled clinical studies in the United States evaluating the effect of onion extract on human wound healing. In all three, scars treated with onion extract did not show any improvement compared to scars treated with petroleum jelly. In fact, scars treated with petroleum jelly improved better than those treated with onion extract.

Here is an abstract of that reference:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12087249

In general, keeping the donor incision site moist following the initial 10-14 days should be all that is necessary, if anything at all.

The issue of "hypertrophic scar" development is a separate matter; usually a patient will know if their wound healing will have this tendency from previous wounds/scars.

In that case, use of steroid injections into the scar by your physician can help decrease this process.

To summarize then; in general, unless you have other underlying medical conditions that would affect wound healing, your wound should heal without any special treatment on your part.

Sincerely,

Timothy Carman, MD

[HairTodayGoneTmrw]

Thank you doctor, that is exactly what i was looking for. I will leave it as is.

 

I've been moistening my donor area as well as graft site with saline solution per my doctors recommendation as she told me keeping things moist accelerates the healing. I guess I shall just continue this for the first 2 weeks!

 

Thanks again

[Dr. Timothy Carman]

You're welcome!!

[MORE_HAIR]

Interesting info doc.

 

Also...the work you are showing looks real clean and refined.

Would like to see these guys as they progress.

 

MH

[Dr. Timothy Carman]

More_Hair-

Thank you for the complement.

Yes, I will be posting patient progress/updates on all cases presented. I liked the idea of showing forum members examples from the start; I think it allows for a better understanding of the entire process one might expect to go through should they elect to go ahead and have their own hair restoration procedure.

Timothy Carman, MD