Clinical features and outcomes of foot keloids treated using complete surgical excision and full thickness skin grafting followed by corticosteroid injections

BACKGROUND Keloids are often resistant to treatment and have high recurrence rates. To the best of the authors' knowledge, however, there have been very few case reports related to foot keloids. The purpose of this retrospective case-series was to summarize the baseline characteristics of a cohort of patients, introduce our treatment regimen for the successful treatment of foot keloids. METHODS Patients were treated with surgical excision followed by full thickness skin grafting combined with postoperative steroid injections combined with silicone gel sheeting over a period of eight years from December 2004 to November 2012 at our institution. Subjective outcome was evaluated using Patient Scar Assessment Scales. The final objective outcome was judged by two independent physicians at the time of 12 months after treatment as recurrence or non-recurrence. RESULTS Of 79 patients, 75 (94.9%) were women and 4 (5.1%) were men. The average age was 18 (range 7-43) years. The average pretreatment total size of the lesions was 50 (range 18-150) cm. The number of patients treated for a primary foot keloid was 29 (36.7%), and 70 patients (63.3%) were treated for a recurrent keloid that failed to respond to prior treatments. Prior treatments included single therapies such as surgical excision alone (4 patients, 5.1%), prior steroid injection alone (33 patients, 41.8%), and laser therapy (2 patients, 2.5%). Other therapies included combination treatments (11 patients, 13.9%). Most patients reported improved Patient Scar Assessment Scale by lapse of time. All patients completed the treatment regimen and follow-up of 12 months. Of these patients, 62 patients (78.5%) achieved successful treatment, while the remaining 17 (21.5%) experienced recurrence. CONCLUSIONS We successfully treated foot keloids using complete surgical excision and full thickness skin grafting followed by four corticosteroid injections (at one month intervals).