SINGAPORE: Patients at the National Skin Centre (NSC) can look forward to a painless treatment to reduce the size of their keloid scars by the end of this year.
Developed by NSC, the new treatment comes in the form of a patch and can be performed by the patient at home, as compared with the current treatment, which involves monthly injections at a clinic.
Keloids, which are firm protruding lesions on the skin, can sometimes cause itchiness and pain when rubbed against fabric, and can affect movement when they form on the joints.
They can also increase in size over time and affect quality of life, said Dr Tey Hong Liang, senior consultant and head of research at the NSC, who revealed the new treatment on Friday (Oct 5).
The NSC takes care of more than 5,000 patients with keloids per year.
The current treatment treatment keloid scars involves having patients undergo monthly injections of the steroid triamcinolone. Regular doses are needed for the treatment to be effective. However, the treatments have certain limitations.
“In many patients, the keloid scars are very sensitive and they feel a lot of pain (from the injection). It prohibits them and deters them from coming for treatment,” said Dr Tey.
“And in children, it’s impossible to inject them because it is just too painful. We have patients who have keloids occurring on the mid-face … These patients are not amenable for injection therapy,” added Dr Tey.
Patches for keloid scars of different sizes. (Photo: Elizabeth Neo)
The alternative treatment NSC has developed uses a microneedle patch that contains triamcinolone.
The microneedle patch, which is about a hundred times smaller than the conventional needles used for keloid injections, is to be applied on the affected area for two to three minutes once a day.
A pack of 30 – which is enough for a month’s use – costs about S$40, similar to the conventional monthly injection.
It is expected to be available on a prescription basis at the end of the year.
One patient, who has been receiving treatment for more than 10 years, told Channel NewsAsia that the discomfort and inconvenience of travelling to the doctor for the injections deters him from getting regular injections.
“For myself because I’ve done the steroid injections, I’ve only got a few (keloids) left that are really stubborn, and they’re quite small. So I will be more than happy to just use the microneedles at home, when I’m watching TV. I can definitely afford a couple of minutes a day,” said the patient, who declined to be identified.
Both the monthly injection and daily patch treatments require patients to receive treatment for about two to five years in order to flatten the scar and relieve discomfort.
A study was conducted on 27 patients who had used the patch from 2016 to 2017. All respondents said that the patch was not painful, while 88 per cent indicated they preferred it over the conventional injection.
