Akademik

n.

The treatment of a surgical incision, wound, or burn to minimize the resulting scar.

"TheBreastCareSite.com delivers its information through personal accounts of treatment and lifestyle decisions, experiences and outcomes. ... [The site's] After Breast Surgery section provides useful information about wound care and scar management."

— "Breast Cancer: New Resource Helps Survivors Look Ahead At Life," Women's Health Weekly, October 25, 2001

"Chapters on evaluation and treatment planning, positioning, splinting, exercise, ambulation in lower-extremity burns, scar management, physical agents, and discharge and follow-up care provide essential information for the reader."

— Susan A. Bemis, "Burn Care and Rehabilitation," Physical Therapy, August 1994

When I was playing street hockey a few years ago, the edge of another player's stick caught me less than half an inch below my left eye, resulting in a quick trip to Emergency and a few stitches. (Not being a full-time idiot, I now wear squash goggles when I play.) When I went to my doctor to have the stitches removed a week or so later, he took one look at them and said, "Ooh, looks like someone's been practicing their plastic surgery stitching." I was glad they did because there's no detectable scar there now.

Many other people aren't so lucky, so scar management has become a booming business.

Note, too, that a new sense of this phrase has emerged recently: "Therapy or other treatments that help people deal with the emotional scars caused by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001." So far I've only seen one citation for this new sense.