Physical Management of Scar Tissue: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective

The aim of this systematic review with meta-analysis was to describe the status on the effects of physical scar treatments on pain, pigmentation, pliability, pruritus, scar thickening, and surface area.

Design

Systematic review and meta-analysis. Subjects: Adults with any kind of scar tissue. Interventions: Physical scar management versus control or no scar management. Outcome measures: Pain, pigmentation, pliability, pruritus, surface area, scar thickness.

Results

The overall results revealed that physical scar management is beneficial compared with the control treatment regarding the management of pain (p = 0.012), pruritus (p < 0.001), pigmentation (p = 0.010), pliability (p < 0.001), surface area (p < 0.001), and thickness (p = 0.022) of scar tissue in adults. The observed risk of bias was high for blinding of participants and personnel (47%) and low for other bias (100%).

Conclusions

Physical scar management demonstrates moderate-to-strong effects on improvement of scar issues as related to signs and symptoms. These results show the importance of specific physical management of scar tissue.