28 May Fat Grafting During Eyelid Surgery
Surgery and Fat Grafting
One of the newer approaches to eyelid surgery now days is the use of fat grafting. The thought is that in addition to traditional eyelid surgery which can remove excess skin and fat from the eye, fat grafting can place some fat back into the area to help create a more youthful appearance.
A recent article from the Aesthetic Journal of Surgery reviewed 500 consecutive patients who underwent this combined procedure. The authors presented their experience with periorbital fat grafting in conjunction with routine blepharoplasty to address periorbital aging. So how did they do? I believe that a picture is worth a thousand words so below is a picture of a woman who was photographed at 3 different times. The photos on the left shows her pre-operative pictures. The photos in the middle were taken following her eyelid procedure at the two month interval. The photos on the far right were taken at the 9 month post-operative interval. So what do you think?
I think the authors had fantastic results and were able to show that, under the right set of circumstances, the addition of fatty tissue back into the eyelid region can add a significant amount of youth to the final results. Another interesting photo from the study is shown below.
These photos show a pre-operative picture on the left. The center photograph shows the same woman 25 years earlier. And finally, the photo to the far right shows the same woman following surgery. The authors have been successful at recreating some of the same eyelid features that the patient had at an earlier point in her life. They make that argument in the article that this would not have been fully possible if they hadn’t used minute amounts of fat grafting during the procedure.
So prior to having elective eyelid surgery make sure your surgeon is adept at fat transfer procedures. They can be a useful adjunct to more traditional eyelid lifts in appropriately selected patients.
Contact Scottsdale Cosmetic Surgeon Dr. Parson
Dr. Parson is an experienced plastic surgeon chosen multiple times as one of the “Top Docs” highlighted in Phoenix Magazine and is the former Chairman of Plastic Surgery and Chief of Surgery at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Hospital. For more information on this or other plastic surgery topics please call Dr. Parson at 480-282-8386. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.