[Second ear piercing for aesthetic purposes and appearance of pathological scars in negroids: About 172 observations in an endemic area of keloids].

This is a transverse and retrospective descriptive study carried out on a quantitative and qualitative component on pathological scars after a second ear piercing for aesthetic purposes in a Negroid female population from an endemic area of keloids. For a period of 10 years (from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2019), we observed 172 patients with pathological ear scars after a second piercing for aesthetic purposes including 65.7% of female students and 22.1% of students. Clinically, we had 143 (83.1%) patients with keloids and 29 (16.9%) with hypertrophic scars. The average age of the second piercing was 22.62 years; 98 (57%) patients had single lesions on the pierced ear and 74 (43%) multiple lesions; 168 (97.7%) had no family history of pathological scars. Our patients from an endemic area of keloids did not develop pathological scars during the first piercing but all develop pathological scars after the second piercing. Several risk factors could be accused: heredity, environment, race, age, gender, wearing of poor-quality jewelry, infection, disruption of the healing process caused by the first piercing, mechanical tension caused by the new ornamental object. However, none of these assumptions has been verified. In the meantime, we do not recommend that at risk negroid subjects, originating from areas with high endemicity of keloids, a second ear piercing for aesthetic purposes.