Personalized Facelift: Does Skin Composition Influence Outcome? Print

The ASERF Scientific Research Committee and Board of Directors are pleased to announce the following grant award:

Researcher: Lorne Rosenfield, MD

Grant Award: ASERF Interim Grant

Amount Awarded: $70,000

Project Name: Personalized Facelift: Does Skin Composition Influence Outcome?

Project Summary:  Determining if intrinsic differences in skin collagen and elastin influence aesthetic outcomes and tissue relaxation post facelift (rhytidectomy). This is relevant since facelift surgery has reliable and predictable long-term clinical and patient-reported outcomes. However, a proportion of patients exhibit early post-operative recurrence of facial rhytids, despite undergoing a technically comparable procedure to those with successful long-term outcomes. We hypothesize an ‘early recurrence’ cohort of patients exist who are predisposed to a sub-optimal surgical outcome due to inherent structural differences in the collagen and elastin of the facial skin. These patients are intrinsically predisposed to a poor aesthetic outcome, possibly due to the undiagnosed presence of a lower-spectrum (“microform”) of cutis laxa. This study aims to quantify collagen and elastin structure at a histological, immunological and cellular level in skin excised during facelift. Patients will be prospectively followed-up, with post-operative aesthetic outcome compared with pre-operative collagen/elastin data.