Overview
Eyebrow lift surgery is common for periorbital aging in Asian women, but keeping the brow stable and adequately projected has been difficult. Building on new anatomical findings about a muscular, multilayered deep fascial system in the brow and forehead, the authors developed a modified deep-plane eyebrow lift that uses this fascial system as the anchor point for suspending periorbital soft tissue, and reviewed outcomes in consecutive patients.
Findings
- Retrospective review, 37 patients aged 32 to 73 years.
- Satisfaction scores (scale apparently out of 4): surgeon-rated mean 3.87 ± 0.41; patient-rated mean 3.71 ± 0.60.
- Upper eyelid height at the medial limbus point: increased from 4.54 ± 0.58 mm to 5.39 ± 0.47 mm (p < 0.001).
- Upper eyelid height at the mid-pupil point: increased from 4.87 ± 0.61 mm to 6.21 ± 0.59 mm (p < 0.001).
- Upper eyelid height at the lateral canthus point: increased from 3.62 ± 0.73 mm to 5.68 ± 0.75 mm (p < 0.001).
- Eyebrow height also improved, though the change was not statistically significant.
- No surgical complications observed over a mean follow-up of 12.0 months.
What it means for a patient
- This brow lift technique anchors to a specific, newly mapped layer of tissue to try to make the lift more stable and better projected.
- In this group, upper eyelid height increased significantly at three different points across the lid, and both surgeons and patients rated satisfaction highly.
- No complications were reported over an average year of follow-up.
- Eyebrow height itself improved but not by a statistically significant amount, meaning the main measured eyelid-area change was more definitive than the brow-height change in this group.
Why this paper matters
It applies a newly described deep fascial anatomy to a modified eyebrow lift technique and reports significant upper eyelid height gains and zero complications in a 37-patient series.
Terms
- Deep-plane eyebrow lift: a brow lift that suspends tissue from a layer deeper than the skin and fat, for more durable support.
- Muscular-deep fascial system: a layered connective-tissue structure beneath the forehead and brow muscles described in recent anatomical study.
- Medial limbus, mid-pupil, lateral canthus points: specific reference points across the eye used to measure eyelid height at different spots.
- Brow ptosis: a low, sagging eyebrow position.