The Latest Strategy for Keloid and Hypertrophic Scar Prevention and Treatment: The Nippon Medical School (NMS) Protocol

Abstract

In 2006, we established a scar/keloid-specialized institution in the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgery at Nippon Medical School (NMS) in Tokyo, Japan. In the ensuing 15 years, we treated approximately 2000 new scar/keloid patients annually. This extensive experience has greatly improved the efficacy of the treatments we offer. Therefore, we discuss here the latest NMS protocol for preventing and treating keloids and hypertrophic scars. While this protocol was optimized for Japanese patients, our experiences with a growing body of international patients suggest that it is also effective in other ethnicities. The extensive evidence-based experience underlying the NMS protocol suggests that it may be suitable as the foundation of a standard international prevention/treatment algorithm for pathological scars.