Scar Tissue: The Integumentary System

The integument is made up of two parts, the skin and accessory structures. Skin or otherwise know as cutaneous membrane makes up a vast majority of the Integumentary System. Skin acts as a barrier from bacteria, UV radiation, and physical trauma. Due to being such a large portion of the body, skin is exposed to a wide quantity of factors that can contribute to the damage. The cause of skin damage can be anywhere from cuts, burns, to even diseases. Once the skin is damaged the complex response system takes action. Some individuals with scars go a step further with removal of the scar tissue.
Scar tissue is fibrous connective tissue which forms when skin tissue is damaged, typically forming when the body tries to heal the wound expeditiously. Scar tissue is constructed by same main protein as normal
Depending on the location of the scar, it may last for over a year. Typically smaller scars go through a remodeling stage, which replaces the scar tissue. Typically larger wounds (over 2mm) are present for greater amount of times (years) (3). For this reason people go through different types of procedures attempting to make large scars more pleasing to the eye. One of the main scar tissue treatments involves steroid injections, which have been used since the mid-1960s. Steroids flatten out scars to some extent, also providing short term relief. Steroid are believed to put an end on the inflammatory process. Another scar tissue treatment is surgery is a common practice to make scars less noticeable. By reopening the wound to remove some scar tissue, surgery can make the new scar more appealing. The third scar tissue treatments is radiotherapy, used in removal of keloids. It is believed that exposure to x-rays decreases collagen production. Caution should be used with radiotherapy as there are long term side effects with use (4). In addition to these three scar tissue treatments, there are many that weren’t