Dammika Dissanayake
National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
Title: Avoiding scars and treating scars- Two sides of the coin
Biography
Biography: Dammika Dissanayake
Abstract
Scarless surgery is every patient’s wish. Plastic Surgeons know that it is not a goal that is achievable. However, it is within the capacity of Plastic Surgeon to minimize scarring – and treat them quite satisfactorily when bad scars do occur. A systematic approach to ensuring minimal scars following open surgery is not easy to find in the literature. Even more difficult to find is a systematic approach to surgical management of existing scars. In this presentation, I will put forward a systematic approach to avoidance of unacceptable scars at surgery. This includes proper tissue handling, meticulous wound debridement, judicious use of suture materials and suture techniques etc, the details of which will be duly mentioned. More importantly, a systematic approach to scar revision is proposed. Numerous types of unacceptable scars including anti-tension line scars, stretched scars, depressed scars, bridle scars, trap door scars, hypertrophic scars, keloid scars etc will be outlined and surgical and ancillary treatment will be described. These include various types of plasties including variants of Z plasty, and variants of W plasty.