Scar Injection

Scar injection targets raised scars: hypertrophic scars, which stay within the boundary of the original wound, and keloids, which keep growing beyond it. These scars commonly follow surgery, burns, acne, piercings, or vaccinations, and often appear on the chest, shoulders, upper back, jawline, and earlobes. Beyond appearance, they can itch, ache, or feel tight—relieving those symptoms is also part of what injection therapy is intended to do.

The treatment can soften and flatten overgrown scar tissue, fade redness, and ease itching, but it does not restore skin to its pre-injury state, and a visible mark usually remains. It is not designed for depressed or pitted scars such as acne scarring—those are generally discussed in terms of lasers, microneedling, or fillers instead. Keloids in particular have a known tendency to recur, so expectations should be set accordingly.

The most commonly injected medication is a corticosteroid, delivered into the scar tissue itself rather than the surrounding skin. Inside the scar, it calms inflammation, suppresses the overactive fibroblasts that keep producing excess collagen, and encourages breakdown of collagen already deposited. Some doctors combine or alternate the steroid with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which inhibits fibroblast proliferation; whether and how to combine them is a prescribing decision the doctor makes case by case.