Wound healing: a review. IV. Systemic medications affecting wound healing.

Physicians performing dermatologic surgery should include a thorough drug history in their preoperative assessments of patients. Such information may allow for the discontinuation, if desired, of drugs that negatively influence the wound-healing process. In some instances, the surgeon may find it useful, during the perioperative period, to substitute a drug known to impede wound healing with another possessing no untoward effects. In other situations, as in the treatment of keloids, physicians may wish to introduce drugs known to reduce scar formation into the biologic environment in which wound healing ensues.