Scarring Post Surgery
Scarring is an entirely normal physiological process evolved over billions of years to heal wounds and an inevitable consequence of injuries, whether they be deliberate and necessary (following an operation) or unintended (following an accident). But, what actually is a scar? A scar is a healed wound that has healed in a way that is non-identical to the neighboring tissue – that is to say, it is identifiably different from the tissue it’s replacing and next to it, and it is that difference that makes it apparent. A scar can technically refer to any tissue that has healed “imperfectly” from heart muscle to tendons (and even on a metaphorical level to psychological wounds). In general, though, when we talk about scars (particularly in surgery) we mean skin scars. This definition of a scar then itself raises two questions: why is the healed skin different from the neighboring tissue, and what is the practical result of those differences? To understand these, it is important to understand ...
