Radiation Therapy
There are some surgeons who are using radiation therapy as a first line adjunctive treatment with
surgery. This means they are removing the keloid and immediately radiating the site without using the
other first line modalities. Those first line treatments are steroid injections, 5 - fluorouracil, or a
combination of these.
These medications, steroid injections, 5-flourouracil and pressure therapy, used at the time of surgery
work almost 90% or more of the time.
The downsides to radiation are that it destroys your normal skin biology. Your skin loses blood flow, it
becomes dry and flaking occurs. It may become hard, permanently or for a long period of time.
Finally, in some areas of the body low dose radiation is not recommended because it causes CANCER
and changes the cell morphology predisposing you to develop some sort of malignancy.
Consequently, I have a lot of trepidation and do not use radiation as a first line of adjunctive treatment.
I reserve the radiation for very severe cases which have failed every other modality possible. This should be standard of care.
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