Not infrequently the cosmetic surgeon is called upon to remove or improve unsightly scars about the face, the result of injuries or burns and after the careless coaptation of such wounds. The scars vary in extent and degree, from a mere pit due to varicella or variola to the broad areas following the cicatrization of lupus and burns. Surgical scars vary also from a mere line to areas of greater or less extent, dependent upon the ablation of neoplasms or the granulation of wounds due to any cause.
The treatment of scars depends upon their size and location. A mere linear scar may be reduced by electrolysis, the needle, negative pole, being introduced equidistantly, from one sixteenth to a quarter inch apart, with the hope of causing a breaking down electro-chemically of the scar itself and waiting for secondary cicatrization. In other words, making a scar within a scar.
This mode of treatment may be repeated in two or three weeks and has the tendency of breaking up the shiny line of light that makes the scar stand out prominently from the skin.
Such scars, where nonadherent, or flat with the plane of the skin, may also be tattooed to reduce their white color.
For this purpose, the red or carmine pigment used for tattooing is diluted and pricked into the scar tissue with a fine cambric needle by hand or electric process.
When the scar is small the line is punctured here and there and the aqueous solution of the pigment is painted over the area, which is again worked over to make it take.
For larger scar surfaces multiple needles are used. These are composed of from four to ten needles soldered together at their eye ends, leaving the points at an even level.
The electric method is the most serviceable for tattooing large scars.
These instruments are electro-magnetic devices made to accommodate single or multiple needle points and can be obtained from instrument makers.
The author has had a special electric synchronous reciprocal apparatus made, as here shown in [Fig. 520], which is much more compact than the ordinary electric apparatus found on the market. It works on the principle of the sewing machine needle.