Contractubex showed best results in the prevention of pathological scars .
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 question ed .
The clarification of this issue is subject of this review .
Possibilities of scar treatment after thoracic surgery.
During a ten year observation period it was found that scar formation after thoracic surgery is influenced by various factors : metabolism , operative technique and factors of a general nature . On the basis of these findings , a study was carried out to investigate the effect of the scar-specific Contractubex gel ( Merz+Co . , D-Frankfurt/Main ) , containing 10 % onion extract , 50 U sodium heparin per g of gel and 1 % allantoin , in the treatment of children who underwent thoracic surgery and to evaluate its effect on scar development . Before and during the six-month treatment period , both macromorphology and scar colour were assessed ; furthermore , a global evaluation of the therapeutic result was made . Additionally , the scars were characterized after a six-month treatment-free follow-up period . The results of 38 Contractubex-treated and 27 untreated patients were compared . In the treated scars , the global evaluation of the therapeutic result was better than in the untreated scars . In the Contractubex group , the rating was " good " and " very good " in 84 % of cases , as compared to 59 % of the untreated cases . In the treated group , the increase in scar size was markedly lower than in the untreated patients . The treated scars showed a tendency towards quicker paling than the untreated scars . In the treated group , the conversion of primary physiological scars to unphysiological scars ( hypertrophic or keloidal scars ) was less frequent than in the untreated group . The tolerability of the product was very good in 37 of the 38 treated patients , and good in one patient . All scar-specific effects of Contractubex continued to persist after the end of treatment
Contractubex showed best results in the prevention of pathological scars .
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 question ed .
The clarification of this issue is subject of this review .