What Are The Scars Like After Rib Removal Surgery?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I need to speak with the surgeon about how he intends to prevent hypertrophic/keloid scarring from rib removal surgery. I’m prone to hypertrophic scars when not managed right. I’ve had surgeries successfully without them and had a couple where I did keloid because of messy/shoddy stitching.

A:Based on my experience in rib removal surgery hypertrophic scarring is not what I have seen. It is true that thicker more pigmented skin does not scar as well as thinner less pigmented skin but an average scar result in such skin from rib removal surgery is shown in the attached result.