A Comprehensive Review of Non-Surgical Treatments for Hypertrophic and Keloid Scars in Skin of Color.

Abstract

Hypertrophic and keloid scars are fibroproliferative growths resulting from aberrant wound healing. Individuals with Fitzpatrick skin types (FSTs) IV-VI are particularly predisposed to hypertrophic and keloid scarring, yet specific guidelines for these populations are still lacking within the literature. Therefore, this comprehensive review provides a list of various treatments and considerations for hypertrophic and keloid scarring in patients with skin of color. We constructed a comprehensive PubMed search term and performed quadruple-blinded screening on all resulting studies to achieve this objective. Our findings demonstrate 1) the lack of efficacious treatments for raised scars within this population and 2) the need to empirically investigate individualized and multimodal therapeutic options for those with skin of color.