Background: The treatment and prevention of hypertrophic scars and keloids represents a special challenge particularly in plastic surgery. Given their simple, non-invasive and painless application, topical preparations are an attractive therapeutic option. On the part of the patients, the efficacy in prevention of and therapy for hypertrophic scars and keloids of these topical preparations is regularly questioned. The clarification of this issue is subject of this review.
Material and methods: A systematic literature research on the databases Medline, Medline Plus, Oldmedline and Cochrane Library was conducted. All randomised controlled trials, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, case series and case studies from the German and English literature, dealing with topical preparations approved in the German speaking area, were included.
Results: In this research, 14 topical preparations were identified. However, there is limited data regarding their efficacy as compared to each other, to other treatment options or untreated controls. Only for 6 topical preparations studies with high evidence level exist. Contractubex showed best results in the prevention of pathological scars.
Conclusion: Even though Contractubex shows preventive effects and can be recommended based on current data, further studies are needed to strengthen the body of evidence and to prove the therapeutic efficacy of topical preparations in general.
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