Hi @alan48
I’m so sorry to hear about your wife’s keloids. I have keloids but not on my knee. I got keloids from my double mastectomy. My issues besides being large, red and raised was the intense pain. For two years I had stabbing, slicing or tearing pains happen about once an hour every hour of the day. They were a 10! Awful. Then my dermatologist talked me into kenalog injections directly into the scars. They were very painful with about 15 each visit but I had 22” of scaring due to T cuts. Each time the pains would stop for 3 mo then more injections. Then we spaced them 4-6 months. I had about 120 injections over 2.5 years and finally the pain didn’t return as the scars flatted out and are light pink. Injections finished 7 years ago. The painful injections were so worth it! Be sure to find a dermatologist with experience in injecting keloids.

I’ve also heard of laser treatments but don’t know if they really work.

When I was a kid I got red raised keloids from two smallpox vaccines (not the normal dent most people got). I had plastic surgery to remove the large double keloid and it came back 5 times as large and painful. I had kenalog injections in the new scar that were worse back in 1970 and didn’t work. Maybe I didn’t have enough or wrong dose or wrong placement. That’s why I say get someone experienced.

If your wife ever needs more surgery there are taping methods of the incision with “Embrace” that is supposed to help prevent keloids. I haven’t used it so I can’t say how well it works. If you have a surgeon that tells her don’t worry you won’t get keloids even though she has a history of them then run! Find someone who is educated about keloids and cares. I hope this helps. Best of luck!