Keratin gel improves poor scarring following median sternotomy.

BACKGROUND

Linear hypertrophic scarring is a common surgical problem that can be difficult to manage. This article evaluates median sternotomy wounds that have often been reported to scar poorly resulting in hypertrophic scar formation.

METHODS

This study is a single-blinded, open-labelled pilot study of 20 patients using keratin gel as the intervention and aqueous cream as the control, which are each applied to a different half of the wound daily over 6 months. We use the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS) and the Manchester Scar Score (MSS) to assess the scarring.

RESULTS

At the 6-month assessment the MSS, patient-POSAS and observer-POSAS were 12.00, 16.70 and 15.00 in the treatment half and 12.58, 17.85 and 16.55 in the control half respectively. Overall, we found that there was a decrease in all score scales after 6 months (P = 0.005). Furthermore, in the subset of patients with poor scarring, decreases in the MSS, patient-POSAS and observer-POSAS were statistically significant (P = 0.025, <0.01 and 0.01) with scores of 12.22, 17.33 and 15.33 in the treatment half and 14.22, 23.67 and 22.33 in the control half respectively.

CONCLUSION

In patients who scar more poorly than average, there were significant improvements in scarring. This demonstrates a simple, well-tolerated intervention that reduces problematic scarring following surgery.