Browsing by Subject "Ear keloid"

BACKGROUND: An auricular keloid is an atypical progressively growing scar on the visible part of the ear, which is usually caused by piercing. Surgery, contact cryo, laser or radiofrequency ablation (RFA) combined with injection, compression and sometimes even radiation therapy are used for treatment with varying results. OBJECTIVE: The skin pigmentation and genetics are known risk factors for keloid formation. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine whether the fair and fairly genetically isolated Finnish population differed demographically from other populations with ear keloids. Additionally we compared the effectiveness of the RFA to surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 150 auricular keloid patients of the Helsinki University Hospital were categorized by demographical data and analyzed using chi-square statistics. A literature search was done resulting in 12 studies. RESULTS: The Finnish population from our patient series seemed to be demographically comparable to other populations based on our own data and literature search. The RFA was not inferior in comparison with surgery.