Face-neck lifting and ancillary procedures: A series of 203 cases

Various methods and ancillary procedures have been defined in the era of face-lifting surgery. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the esthetic outcomes of our face-neck cases and the importance of adding ancillary procedures based on individual assessment. We conducted a retrospective review of 203 face-neck cases, basically following the endoscopic and open principles of Vasconez. The ancillary procedures added in selected cases included genioplasty, augmentation with autologous facial superficial fascial tissue or fat injections, upper lip shortening, perioral dermabrasion, ear lobe reduction, buccal fat reduction, mentum lifting, and upper orbital rim shaving. Complications, postoperative follow-up, esthetic outcomes, and contribution of the ancillary procedures were recorded. Our esthetic face complication rates were comparable to those of previous studies and included chemosis, hematoma, cyst on the eyelid suture line, skin sloughing, scar abnormalities (hypertrophic scar and widespread scar), pseudoparalysis of the marginal mandibular branch, temporary hypoesthesia of the forehead, irregularity of the glabella after endoscopy, and asymmetry. We did not observe any comorbidity owing to genioplasty and augmentation with autologous tissue except for a case with infection after fat injection. More improvement can be obtained with careful planning of ancillary procedures in face-neck lifting surgery.