Pediatric Keloids and Review of the Efficacy of Current Treatment Modalities

Keloids and hypertrophic scars are the result of excessive fibroblast proliferation and collagen deposition in the wound healing process, leaving patients with irritating and cosmetically displeasing lesions. Despite there being numerous modalities for treatment, keloids are notoriously recalcitrant to therapy and recurrence rates are high.

Because many keloids begin to develop during childhood and adolescence, it is important to better understand which treatment options may be best suited toward the pediatric population specifically.

We reviewed 13 studies that focus specifically on effectiveness of treatment options for keloids and hypertrophic scars in the pediatric population. These studies cover 545 keloids in 482 patients, all aged 18 and younger.

Many treatment modalities were used, with multimodal treatment being the most common (76%). There were 92 instances of recurrence, with a total recurrence rate of 16.9%.

Data from the combined studies suggest that keloid development is less common before adolescence and that higher rates of recurrence are observed among patients who have received monotherapy compared with those who received multimodal treatments. More well-designed studies with standardized ways of assessing outcomes are needed to expand our understanding on how to optimally treat keloids in the pediatric population.