“Oriental anthropometry” in plastic surgery

BACKGROUND: According to Chinese medicine, the acupuncture-points' (acupoints) locations are proportionally and symmetrically distributed in well-defined compartment zones on the human body surface Oriental Anthropometry” (OA). Acupoints, if considered as aesthetic-loci, might be useful as reference guides in plastic surgery (PS). AIM: This study aimed to use aesthetic-loci as anatomical reference in surgical marking of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. METHOD: This was an observational study based on aesthetic surgeries performed in private clinic. This study was based on 106 cases, comprising of 102 women and 4 men, with ages varying from 07 to 73 years, and with heights of between 1.34 m and 1.80 m. Patients were submitted to aesthetic surgical planning by relating aesthetic-loci to conventional surgical marking, including breast surgeries, abdominoplasty, rhytidoplasty, blepharoplasty, and hair implant. The aesthetic-surgical-outcome (ASO) of the patients was assessed by a team of plastic surgeons (who were not involved in the surgical procedures) over a follow-up period of one year by using a numeric-rating-scale in percentage (%) terms. A four-point-verbal-rating-scale was used to record the patients' opinion of therapeutic-satisfaction (TS). RESULTS: ASO was 75.3 ± 9.4% and TS indicated that most patients (58.5%) obtained “good” results. Of the remainder, 38.7% found the results “excellent”, and 2.8% found them “fair”. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The data suggested that the use of aesthetic-loci may be a useful tool for PS as an anatomical reference for surgical marking. However, further investigation is required to assess the efficacy of the OA by providing the patients more reliable balance and harmony in facial and body contours surgeries.