Treatment of Anterior Neck Aging without a Submental Approach: Lateral Skin-Platysma Displacement, a New and Proven Technique for Platysma Bands and Skin Laxity.

Abstract

A high rate of recurrence of anterior platysma bands and anterior skin laxity was reported at the 1-year follow-up of 150 patients who underwent complete neck undermining and full-width platysma transection for neck rejuvenation. The authors propose a new technique-lateral skin-platysma displacement-to treat these two aesthetic problems using only a lateral approach to avoid "opening" the anterior neck. The authors' objective was to compare outcomes following full-width platysma transection technique and lateral skin-platysma displacement technique in terms of patient satisfaction, complications, and long-term effectiveness in the treatment of bands and anterior skin laxity. A prospective study was carried out on 100 patients. All patients were operated on by the senior surgeon (M.P.C.). Patient questionnaires were used to assess their levels of satisfaction. Patient satisfaction was extremely high following both techniques. Successful correction of bands at 1 year was observed in 83.5 percent of the lateral skin-platysma displacement patients and 56 percent of the full platysma section patients. Regarding recurrent skin laxity, 68 percent of those who underwent lateral skin-platysma displacement did not show any obvious recurrence of excess skin at 1 year compared with 52 percent of the full platysma section group. Prolonged edema was the main complication and was considerably more frequent in the patients undergoing complete neck undermining. The 1-year patient satisfaction ratings were higher for those treated with the lateral skin-platysma displacement technique. The lateral skin-platysma displacement technique has proved to have a much shorter recovery and better outcomes in the correction of platysma bands and of the anterior neck skin laxity. Therapeutic, IV.