Background: The role of genetic factors in keloid is affirmed by the fact that keloids have been shown to occur among members of the same family.
Objective: To determine whether there is any association between patients’ blood group and HLA sub-types to keloids and keloid recurrence.
Design: A prospective longitudinal study
Setting: The Kenyatta National Hospital between August 2018 and July 2020.

Subjects/Participants: Patients with keloids and a control of patients managed for other surgical conditions with no keloids. Blood was taken from each patient and analyzed for blood group and HLA sub-types using the sequence specific primer geno-typing. Data captured were summarized and analyzed using students T-test and Bonferroni correction. Probability values significance was at 0.05.

Results: A total of 90 patients with keloids and 59 in a control group were followed up in the study. The male to female ratio of the patients was 1:2. The most common blood group for both groups was blood group O at 51.3% and 49.2%, followed by blood group A and B respectively. Patients with keloids had a significantly higher positive alleles of HLADQA1*01 and HLADQB1*06. There was also an association between blood group A and keloid recurrence.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that there is significant difference in some HLA sub-types and blood groups among patients who form keloids and non-keloid forming patients an indication of the possible role patient’s genetics and immune could play in keloid pathogenesis and severity.