Novel treatment of revision malarplasty with piezosurgery: A case report

BACKGROUND: Reduction malarplasty is a routine clinical procedure among Asian women, but the traditional surgical methods are still associated with serious complications, such as nonunion of the osteotomy sites. Revisional surgery to correct such complications is common, but poor bone healing in the osteotomy area presents a challenge to plastic surgeons. In this report, the authors present a new technique for revision malarplasty that uses the piezosurgery (piezoelectric bone surgery) approach. PATIENT AND DIAGNOSIS: A 30-year-old female patient underwent reduction malarplasty with titanium plate fixation in the zygomatic region at another hospital 4 years ago, but the root of the zygomatic arch was not fixed. The patient was diagnosed with bone nonunion, facial asymmetry, and soft tissue sagging on the right side of the face after malarplasty. INTERVENTION: We used piezosurgery to truncate the displaced healed broken end of the zygomatic bone according to the original osteotomy line. Following this, the malar was re-fixed with micro-titanium mesh, and the zygomatic arch was fixed with a titanium plate. OUTCOME: The patient was followed up for 11 months after the revision procedure. Her facial appearance was satisfactory, and no complications were observed on computed tomography images. LESSONS: This report presents a novel therapeutic option for surgical revision of failed malarplasty. Piezosurgery can help overcome the limitations of traditional surgical methods by reducing bone resorption, preventing resorption of the bone in revision malarplasty, modifying the degree of inward and upward movement of the zygomatic bone by facilitating adjustment of the position of the drill hole in the cortex of the bone stump for stable fixation. Hence piezosurgery can be a simple, accurate, and non-invasive osteotomy method for revision malarplasty.