Dr. Sam Lam Plastic Surgery Forum

Large keloid under my neck is very painful. It has been growing for over 10 years, But I can not live with it any longer. Can this be removed?

yes, this ca be removed. take a look at this photo that i did:
http://www.lamfacialplastics.com/proced ... -revision/

his keloid excision failed until i coordinated radiation therapy with it. the only way i am going to attempt this is for you to arrange radiation therapy when we schedule surgery so that you START RADIATION WITHIN 24 HOURS OF EXCISION. you cannot do that without advanced planning. if you live in dallas, that will be easy. if you don't, the plan would be to plan a surgical date, coordinate that with your local radiation oncologist, then have the sutures removed 9 days afterward by a local doctor or you come back and let me do it. obviously, the other option is you stay the 5 days for radiation in dallas and then take sutures out a few days later. that may be unreasonable. hope that helps as a start.

if you excise it alone, your failure rate is probably 90%. if you just radiate it, your failure rate is 100%. if you excise it and radiate it but radiate it several days to several weeks later, your failure rate is 30 to 40%. if you excise and radiate it within 24 hours, your success rate can be over 90%.
best,
sml