Study Compares Scalp Numbness between Brow Lift Techniques

As the forehead naturally descends with aging, its position can lead to some undesired effects to the face, such as frown lines, creases across the forehead, and a low or sagging brow. Brow lift surgery can help minimize these characteristics and give you a more youthful appearance.

Two common techniques surgeons use to perform brow lifts are the open brow lift and the endoscopic brow lift. The open brow lift has one continuous incision from ear to ear, going up around your hairline, like headphones. The incision lines are made behind the hairline so that they won’t be visible.

For an endoscopic brow lift, the surgeon makes a few shorter incisions in the scalp, and then the endoscope, a surgical video device, is inserted into one of the incisions to view the tissues and muscles from a screen. At the same time, the surgeon uses another device inserted in another incision to make the necessary alterations.

A study published recently in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery compared postoperative numbness in the scalp and forehead for these two brow lift techniques and found that open brow lifts resulted in more numbness early on, but after about 18 months, the end results were about the same.

Twenty-one participants took part in the study; 11 had an endoscopic brow lift and 10 had an open brow lift.

The researchers found that those who had the open brow lift had a significantly greater objective loss of sensation from one to two weeks to 12 to 14 weeks after surgery and greater subjective sensory loss from four to six weeks to 12 to 14 weeks. However, the differences were no longer present at 24 to 26 weeks after surgery.

In addition, a retrospective analysis was completed of 58 patients followed up at six months or more postoperatively. Again, the open group had more numbness early on, from six to 18 months, but the differences disappeared after the 18-month point.

Despite the numbness, the authors found that “almost no patients (57 of 58), irrespective of the technique used for their brow lift, viewed their experienced forehead and/or scalp numbness to have been significant enough to deter them from undergoing the surgery again.”

Dr. Branman performs open and endoscopic brow lifts at his Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center.