Everyone gets hurt in their body while living. No matter how careful you are, there are cases of accidental injuries. Sometimes, you may have to undergo an important surgery and you may be forced to make an incision in your skin. And when the body hurts like this, he suffers from throbbing pain for a while.
But think of a time when you got hurt. What you really worry about is not the pain at the moment. What really worrys about when you’re injured is the scar that may remain after the wound heals. In particular, parents are worried that a small wound on their children’s delicate skin will later become a big scar.
There are many cases in the world that the first careful treatment leads to a big difference in the results afterwards. The same goes for wound healing. If you take good care of it early, you can minimize scarring later on. So today, I’m going to focus on treating wounds, especially how to avoid scarring. And at the end, let’s also look at the keloid that many people are curious about.
What should I do first when I get hurt?
The first thing you need to do with any wound is to wash away any foreign material from the wound. It is best to use normal saline to clean the wound. However, if you can’t prepare physiological saline right away, it’s a good idea to spill clean tap water over the wound. In this case, be especially careful not to touch the wound directly with your hands.
Should I put a band-aid on the wound?
If the size or depth of the wound is not enough to go to the emergency room and to some extent it can be treated at home, it is recommended to apply a band-aid after sufficient disinfection. Band-aids are effective in preventing infection and pain by protecting the wound area from external bacteria and physical irritation. If available, a moist band-aid that keeps the wound moist is better than a regular band-aid. Wet bandages have the advantage of preventing scabs from forming on the wound and shortening the healing period.
Wouldn’t it be good if there were scabs?
There are some who believe that treatment is not working properly only after a scab has formed. However, from the point of view of preventing scarring, scabs are not very desirable. A scab is formed as blood hardens on the wound and is one of the wound healing processes. However, since this scab is literally hard, it can compress the wound area and heal the wound irregularly. This will leave scars later. This is why it is good to keep the wound area moderately moist with a moist bandage to prevent scabs from forming.
Should I apply ointment on the wound?
Many people consider applying ointment to the wound as a necessity, but this is not necessarily the case. Depending on the degree of bacterial infection of the wound, antibiotic ointment is sometimes necessary, but it is sufficient to disinfect most of the small wounds that occur in daily life and then apply a wet bandage. However, if you do not have a wet band-aid, it is a good idea to apply the ointment and then apply a regular band-aid to create the effect of a wet band-aid.
Should I disinfect every day?
It is good to disinfect often enough. However, you don’t have to do it several times a day, and if it’s a normal wound, about once a day is adequate. However, you must be careful not to contaminate the wound by touching the wound while disinfecting it.
Even if a band-aid is applied hard and sterilized well, a scar may remain depending on the severity of the wound or the characteristics of the individual’s skin. Some scars become overgrown or noticeable over time. Among them, the representative one is the keloid, and these days, many people are concerned about this keloid.
What is a keloid?
Long ago, you may have seen the injured area left as a bumpy, swollen scar. If so, you may have seen a keloid. A keloid is a result of abnormally excessive synthesis of collagen during the wound healing process after skin injury. It is a benign tumor and does not progress to a malignant tumor. However, it may cause cosmetic problems, and if it occurs on the face or joints, it may cause obstacles to normal movement. The areas where keloids are well formed are the forearms including the ears, shoulders, and sternum. The keloids are mainly red or purple, but when melanin pigment is deposited, they may appear brown or black.
Keloids are often compared to hypertrophic scars. Here, a scar is like a scar. Both keloids and hypertrophic scars have the same thing as scars that occur as a result of a wound, but the difference is that keloids grow beyond the wound area as time passes, and the thickening scar does not leave the wound area. Initially, hypertrophic scars and keloids appear almost alike and may be difficult to distinguish.
How to treat keloids?
Steroid therapy can be tried in the most common way. However, since steroid therapy has a limitation in its effectiveness, if the size of the keloid is large and it interferes with daily life, it should be considered surgically removed. Surgical treatment has the advantage of clear improvement, but there is also a concern of recurrence because it can cause another wound. This recurrence rate can be reduced if radiation therapy is combined after surgery. On the other hand, silicone gel or laser treatment can also help relieve symptoms. However, there is still no way to completely cure keloids. This is why you should be careful for prevention rather than treatment.
How to prevent keloids?
Both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the development of keloids. It is known that about 15% of the population has a genetic predisposition to developing keloids. If you already have keloids somewhere in your body, you need to be more careful not to hurt your skin. For example, you should be careful not to pierce your ears or squeeze pimples on your chest, etc.
Take-home message.
When we talk about organs, we often think of internal organs like the stomach or liver, but skin is also one of the human organs. It is actually the largest organ in our body. Skin plays an important role in protecting our body from external irritation and risk of infection. This is why rapid and appropriate treatment is needed when skin injuries are injured. Read the contents introduced in today’s article carefully so that even if it hurts, treat it well so that it does not leave a scar.
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