Editing Skin excisions general (section)

== '''Dog ears''' ==

* A consequence of closing a rounded defect in a straight line. Redundant skin accumulates at either end and produces a bulge - a relative looseness, not an excess skin
* Tends to subside over time as the centre of the scar relaxes
* Can be reduced by extending the excision in the direction of closure, at the cost of a longer scar
* Decide between making a longer scar, and leaving a dog ear that may not fully resolve
** Children get more hypertrophic scars and better remodelling, so better to leave it
** Elderly patients don't remodel much and rarely get hypertrophic scars, so better to fix it
* Can also excise some extra subcutaneous fat at either end to flatten it out a bit



Lesion excision along convex surfaces: Lazy S repair

* Elongates the length of the scar, but avoids puckering or buckling in the middle

[[Category:Skin, soft tissue and wounds]]