CASE REPORT   

Chirurgia 2003 August;16(4):159-62

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

The use of aesthetic tattoo in the present surgical practice

Araco F., Cervelli V., Cannatà C.

The aim of this paper is to improve the treatment of serious burn scars before with surgery and then with aesthetic tattoo. We treated at the Plastic and Reconstructive Department of the S. Eugenio Hospital in Rome a 18-year-old female patient with scars, caused by hot liquid, in the anterior region of the chest involving breasts, clavicular and cervical regions. After about 6 months we introduced 2 tissue expanders in the chest to obtain skin with same characteristics of the missing skin. It was used for substituting burn areas and shifting scars to the sub-mammary sulcus. Then, bigger tissue expanders were replaced to obtain gain more skin in left sub-mammary region and left clavicular region. Afterwards, scar skin was resected and definitive subcutaneous prothese were replaced to improve mammary profile distorted by the strong traction of the scars. The patient was not satisfied with the results and had relation problems caused by the visible scars in treated regions. An aesthetic tattoo was suggested to hide the scars. In this way we brightly solved, the discomfort expressed at first by the patient. Therefore, we suggest that aesthetic tattoo should be used in surgical practice as an extreme and last way, but this is necessary, useful and effective when surgery cannot solve problems in patients with wide and disfiguring scars.