Dear Dr, I am a 21 yo lady, I have a keloid in the upper part of my chest, just on sternum, I did 2 times injection of depomedrol, it's very painful and it's still there.
Is there any new treatment to cure it.
Best regards
The most successful therapy is excision followed immediately i.e., beginning the day of surgery, by a short course of radiation therapy. This will "turn off" the inflammatory process that is the source of the abnormal excessive scar formation.
Dear, 5- flurauracil is more effective intralesional innection than depamedrol and also you have to try silicone sheet on your keloid for at least 3months .
Your keloid should be stable before surgical excission to avoid recurrence
Keloids can't be cured in the sense that you remove them like a cancer and then they are cured. The treatment is surgical to debulk or remove them and then medical to prevent them from coming back. Any treatment that focuses on removal whether by laser, scalpel or injection without addressing recurrence should be avoided because recurrent keloids are much harder to treat. The gold standard of treatment is surgical removal followed by 3 radiation treatments within a week of surgery and beginning within 24 hours of surgery. That should prevent recurrence but for an optimal flat soft narrow scar I find months of medicated tape and occasionally laser are also required. Not everyone though is a candidate for surgery and radiation for a variety of reasons and other options with more frequent office visits do exist.
Excision and short course of low dose radiation beginning within 24 hours of surgery. See radiation oncologist in advance to discuss risks.
Tough problem but manageable. I’ve had moderate success with excision and injection of steroid starting the day of surgery and then close folllow up every 2 to 3 months for examination and ongoing injections of steroids as needed. This helps modulate the recurrence to some degree. As the other surgeons suggested, radiation at the time of surgery is best.
Dear Mehrdad,
Hello and thank you for your excellent question. I agree with many of the comments on this thread- If steroid injections have not worked, then excision followed by low dose radiation therapy has been shown to help. If you have any questions, call our office for assistance. Good luck!