The pathological types of scars
Superficial scars
Superficial scar refers to a kind of scar on the surface of the skin, which is formed by a mild abrasion of the skin, or a superficial second degree burn, or a superficial infection of the skin. It usually involves the superficial epidermis or superficial dermis, and its surface is rough. Sometimes, there are pigment changes, the local area is flat and soft, and sometimes the boundary between it and surrounding normal skin is unclear. In addition to the appearance slightly different from normal skin, rough surface or pigment changes, superficial scars usually do not bring functional disorders.
Hypertrophic scars
Hypertrophic scars mostly occur after the wound healing of deep burn, and reticular hypertrophic scars at the sutures around the skin after skin grafting of third-degree burns. These scars are higher than the skin surface, and their local thickening and hardening in the early stage, and the capillaries are congested and appear red or dark red. The base of a hypertrophic scar is generally not adhered to deep tissues, it can be pushed, the contractility is small, and most of them do not cause serious dysfunction.
keloids
A keloid is essentially a fibroma of the skin. It is different from hypertrophic scars. It is characterized by hardness, red color, protruding the skin surface, constantly growing and expanding all around. Sometimes it’s fist-like or crab-foot-like hyperplasia, sometimes it’s connected into a band-like shape, and it's local congestion, painful, and easily ruptured by scratch. These are difficult to treat and easy to relapse.
Atrophic scars
Atrophic scars are one of the most unstable scar tissues. They often occur in large areas of trauma and burns. This kind of scar tissue is very thin, with a flat surface, hypopigmentation, hard texture, and poor local blood circulation. The surface is only a layer of atrophic tissue, which has poor resistance to damage. It is easy to rupture and ulceration. There are a large number of collagen fibers in the scar base, which are closely adhered to the deep tissue, and have great contractility, often pulling the surrounding tissues and causing severe dysfunction.
