During the summer I had a severe injury to my palm and wrist, requiring quite a few stitches. Fortunately no important stuff was hurt, and I retain full mobility. However, there are painful lumps under the scar. My doctor tells me they are keloids, and harmless. She suggested I might try rubbing with a vitamin E lotion.
Google tells me that they may eventually go away in any case.
My question is this: I’ve had lots of previous surgeries and injuries. This is the first time keloids have appeared. Why now? What would cause keloids to form in this injury and repair and never before?
First question is: are you sure it’s a keloid and not a “hypertrophic scar”? What is your ethnicity? Is there a family history of keloids? If you are not dark-complexioned and if you have no family history, it may not be a keloid after all. In that case, the reason that you developed it at this time but not before, could be the location of the wound (with the wrist being a site where hypertrophic scars tend to develop).
Here is a non-too-easy to digest review article that discusses the differences between keloids and hypertrophic scars. Still, enough of it should make sense (including the tables) to be of some interest.
Thank you, KarlGauss! My primary care doctor called it a keloid, but I can see from the site you provided that it could just as well be a hypertrophic scar.
I’m of European ancestry, and I don’t recall anyone else in the family having a scar that looks like mine.
There was no infection, the wound having been very thoroughly cleaned out within a short time. I received intravenous antibiotics plus pills to take later.
I found the following paragraph very interesting:
My injury was certainly cleaned and closed promptly, but conditions in the hospital ER were less than ideal. I had a local anesthesia, but the doctor did not seem to me to be handling the tissues especially gently.
Thanks again. It’s an annoying thing to have, but really very minor considering that I have retained full function in the hand.