Revision of Face & Body Scars

Improve the appearance of a scar through scar revision

Scars can be caused by various situations, including physical trauma, accidents, or the results of previous surgery. A scar will be developed depending on how your body heals in response to the original surgery or the experience of the surgeon.

There are a number of variables that can affect how severe scarring can be, including the size and depth of the wound, thickness and color of your skin, blood supply in the area, and direction of the scar. The extent that a scar affects your self-esteem is a personal matter.

No scar can be completely removed, however, Dr. Lesavoy is a skilled scar revision surgeon in Beverly Hills who can improve the appearance of a scar. This can make the scar appear less obvious through the injection or application of various steroid medications or scar revisions.

More serious forms of scar surgery are skin grafts and skin flaps. These are more likely to be performed in a hospital as inpatient procedures, under the use of general anesthesia. The treated area may take several weeks or months to heal, and a support garment or bandage may be necessary for up to a year.

The process of grafting involves the transfer of skin from a healthy part of the body (the donor site) to cover the injured area. The graft is said to “take” when new blood vessels and scar tissue form in the injured area. While most grafts from a person’s own skin are successful, there are times that the graft doesn’t take. In addition, all grafts leave some scarring at both the donor and recipient sites.

Skin flap surgery is a complex procedure in which skin, the underlying fat, blood vessels, and sometimes the muscle, is moved from a healthy part of the body to the injured site. In some flaps, the blood supply remains attached at one end to the donor site, while in other, blood vessels in the flap are reattached to vessels at the new site using microvascular surgery.

Skin grafting and flap surgery can greatly improve the function of a scarred area. The cosmetic results may be less satisfactory, since the transferred skin may not match the color and texture of the surrounding skin. Generally, flap surgery produces better cosmetic results than skin grafts.

CONTRACTURE: Burns or other injuries that result in the loss of a large area of skin may form a scar that pulls the edges of the skin together, a process that is called contraction. The resulting contracture may affect the adjacent muscles and tendons, restricting normal movement.

Correcting a contracture generally involves cutting out the scar and replacing it with either a skin graft or a flap. In some cases Z-plasty may be used. Several new techniques, such as tissue expansion, are also playing an increasingly important role. Ask Dr. Lesavoy for more information about correcting a contracture. If the contracture has existed for some time, you may need physical therapy after surgery to restore full function.