Patient education
Hypertrophic Scar After Surgery: Recognising and Managing Problems
Written for someone who has had an operation and is trying to tell whether the scar they are looking at is maturing or going wrong. The honest maturation course month by month, a scar still active past the window, hypertrophic scar against keloid, tension and site, what helps and what harms, the findings that are urgent, how a scar is assessed, when to treat and when to wait, and what a second operation can and cannot arrange differently.
All guides
10 guides
- Normal Scar Maturation, Month by MonthRecovery
- A Scar Still Red and Raised Past the Expected WindowTiming
- Hypertrophic Scar or Keloid: Why the Difference MattersDiagnosis
- Why Some Scars Stay Raised: Tension, Site and HealingCauses
- What Makes a Raised Scar Worse, and What HelpsAftercare
- When a Raised Scar Needs Prompt Assessment, Not a ReviewRed flags
- While You Wait for a Scar Assessment: What to Do, and What to StopWaiting
- Reading a Raised Scar: What the Examination MeasuresAssessment
- When to Treat a Raised Scar, and When to Keep WaitingTreatment
- What a Second Operation on a Scar Can and Cannot AchieveRevision
Not sure whether your scar is maturing or going wrong?
Contact the team rather than deciding from a mirror. This site cannot assess a scar, and the findings that need care — a scar growing beyond the original wound, a wound that has opened, redness with heat or discharge, a scar tightening across a joint — are not ones to watch for another week.