What it means for a patient
- This brow lift uses small incisions and works in the layer just under the skin rather than under the muscle.
- The brow is held in its new position by temporary stitches through the skin while it heals.
- About 5% of patients had the brow drop again; most of them had a repeat procedure within a month.
- This is a retrospective series without a comparison group. Level IV evidence is a case series.
Why this paper matters
It introduced the gliding brow lift and reported results in 124 patients with a mean follow-up of 17 months. It is an early use of the hemostatic net to hold tissue in a new position, not only to prevent bleeding.
Overview
A brow lift aims for a predictable, stable result with few trade-offs. The authors describe the gliding brow lift, which frees the forehead, brow and temple skin from the muscles beneath through small incisions, then holds the new brow shape with a hemostatic net. They reviewed 124 patients treated from November 2015 to April 2016.
Findings
- 124 patients, November 2015 to April 2016, retrospective review.
- Technique: small incisions, tumescent fluid, undermining under the skin of forehead, brows and temples, releasing skin from the frontalis, orbicularis oculi, corrugator muscles and temporal parietal fascia.
- The reshaped brow was held in place with a hemostatic net for temporary skin fixation.
- Average follow-up: 17 months.
- Adequate brow repositioning and/or reshaping: 118 patients.
- Brow drop returned on one or both sides in 6 patients; 4 of them had the procedure repeated within 1 month with success.
- No hematoma, seroma, infection, permanent sensory change, motor dysfunction, skin flap necrosis or hair loss.
- Level of evidence: IV.
Terms
- Brow ptosis: a low or drooping eyebrow.
- Subcutaneous plane: the layer just below the skin.
- Undermining: separating skin from the tissue beneath it.
- Tumescent infiltration: injecting a large volume of dilute numbing fluid before surgery.
- Frontalis muscle: the forehead muscle that raises the brows.
- Hemostatic net: rows of temporary stitches through the skin that hold it against the tissue below.
- Alopecia: hair loss.
- Level of evidence IV: a case series without a control group.