THE USE OF SILICONE OCCLUSIVE SHEETING (SIL-K) AND SILICONE OCCLUSIVEGEL (EPIDERM) IN THE PREVENTION OF HYPERTROPHIC SCAR FORMATION

The development of hypertrophic scars and keloids is an unsolved probl em in the process of found healing. For this reason, a successful trea tment to prevent excessive scar formation still has not been found. Ov er the last decade, however, a promising new treatment has been introd uced. Silicone materials have proved to reduce the amount of scar tiss ue and are believed even to prevent hypertrophic scar and keloid forma tion. In this study, the prophylactic effect of a silicone occlusive s heeting (Sil-K, Degania, Israel) and a silicone occlusive gel (Epiderm , Inamed B.V., The Netherlands) was investigated in a bilateral br eas t-reduction scar model in which the nontreated scars were supported by nonocclusive Micropore (3M, The Netherlands). The inframammary scars of 129 female patients with a mean age of 31 years (14 to 69 years) we re studied up to 1 year after the operation. The width and height Ther e measured, and B-scan ultrasound, laser-Doppler flowmetry, and color measurements were used as objective indicators to distinguish between normal and exuberant scars. Three months following the operation, 64.3 percent of the patients developed a hypertrophic scar, which was redu ced to 56.6 percent after 6 months and down to 35.3 percent after 1 ye ar, No keloids were seen. Patients with an easily tanning skin, nonsmo kers, and patients with an allergy showed more hypertrophic scar forma tion. Neither Sil-K, used in 68 patients, nor Epiderm, used in 61 pati ents, could prevent the formation of hypertrophic scars. If both group s were taken together, the scars treated with silicone materials even developed significantly more hypertrophy compared with the Micropore-a pplicated scars.