Chest Keloid Treatment: Q&A From the Netherlands

Last updated: September 22, 2026

The following chest keloid treatment Q&A features a woman from the Netherlands who is currently (2026) undergoing chest keloid treatment and has not finished. She also has an ear keloid Q&A under Success Stories if you want to check it out:

Ear Keloid Removal Success The Netherlands

Chest Keloid Treatment Questions and Answers

Answers may have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Question: What country are you from?

Answer: I live in the Netherlands, though I’m of Vietnamese heritage.

Question: What caused the 2 keloids to form on your chest?

My chest keloids were caused by chickenpox. I was six years old when they started to form.

Question: Were your keloid scars painful?

Answer: Yes. I used to experience extremely painful shooting sensations, particularly when stretching in the morning. Since receiving treatment, the pain has gone away.

Question: Did you try any treatments in the past that didn’t work?

Answer: Back in 2009 and 2011, they were treated with Kenacort shots, but they didn’t have much impact, and the keloids continued to grow larger.

Question: What does your current treatment regimen look like?

I received cryotherapy treatment at Amsterdam University Medical Center. They dipped a cotton bud into liquid nitrogen and applied it to my chest keloid scars to freeze them. The area was locally anesthetized beforehand. The freezing happened 3 times per treatment. Freeze it, the scar thaws, then freeze it again. After the treatment, a blister forms, similar to that of a burn. After a few days, a thick crust will appear and fall off over time. The scar is then flatter.

I had 3 sessions in total. The first session was only cryotherapy. The 2nd and 3rd sessions combined cryotherapy with Kenacort injections immediately after freezing. After a period of 4 months and letting the scar tissue heal, I started back with Kenacort injections. They are using 100 mg of 5-FU and Kenacort at 40 mg/mL.

The cryotherapy took away a lot of the thickness and bulkiness of my keloid scar and created a “fresher” and softer scar, which allows the Kenacort injections to have a greater effect.

I still have more injections scheduled, which will be spaced 6 weeks apart.

Comments are from the editor below:

What Causes a Keloid Scar to Form

As the woman explains, her keloids developed from chickenpox at age 6 that never fully healed and eventually formed the 2 scars. The original scars from childhood were much smaller than the keloid scars in the pictures today. Over time, untreated keloid scars continue to grow larger and thicker.

Any skin injury can potentially lead to the formation of a keloid. Acne is one of the most common causes, but keloids may also develop following surgery or an accidental injury. For people who are prone to keloid scarring, avoiding unnecessary skin trauma and treating a developing keloid scar as early as possible is essential.

Cryotherapy Treatment for Keloids

Cryotherapy is a treatment that uses extreme cold (liquid nitrogen) to freeze and damage keloid tissue. The keloid scar will then blister and the burned tissue will fall off over a period of days or weeks. This can reduce the thickness of the keloid scar. The treatment can be repeated depending on the thickness of the scar and it should always be combined with corticosteroid injections, such as Kenalog-40 or Kenacort-40.

The cryogun shown above sprays liquid nitrogen and is commonly used in dermatology offices to freeze and remove warts and other skin lesions. In this woman’s case, her doctors dipped a cotton swab into a container of liquid nitrogen and applied it directly to the keloid scar.

Kenacort Steroid Injections

Kenacort is a brand name for the corticosteroid triamcinolone acetonide (steroid injections for keloid scars). In the United States, Kenalog is a more commonly used brand among dermatologists, but it’s the same thing, just a different manufacturer with a different brand name. Triamcinolone acetonide is available in different concentrations, commonly ranging from 10 mg/mL to 40 mg/mL.

The appropriate concentration depends on the keloid’s size, thickness, and location. A concentration of 40 mg/mL is often used for thicker keloids, while lower concentrations may be preferred for smaller, thinner, or facial keloids.

In my personal experience treating chest and shoulder keloids in the United States, undiluted Kenalog-40 was necessary to flatten the scars. Lower concentrations were ineffective for me and only delayed improvement while wasting money. Unless your keloid scar is incredibly small or thin, ask your doctor for 40 mg/mL, undiluted. Undiluted simply means asking your doctor not to mix the Kenalog with anything else. In other words, the Kenalog would be injected undiluted, directly from the vial into the keloid scar.

Had this woman been treated with Kenacort-40 when the keloid scars were much smaller and had received multiple treatments every 4 to 5 weeks for a period of 6 to 12 months, I believe her keloid scars could have flattened. While I do not know, my hunch is that her doctors back in 2009 either gave her too low a concentration of triamcinolone acetonide, didn’t give it to her frequently enough over a long enough period, or both.

For further information about using triamcinolone acetonide (steroid injections for keloid scars) you can check out this article:

Kenalog Steroid Injections For Keloid Scars

For information on how I personally treated my keloids, check out this article: 

Chest Keloid Treatment: What Actually Worked