n635  0504  14 Sep 77
BC-Medicine 09-14
Editors.
The following medical reports have been culled by Arthur J. Snider,
Chicago Daily News science editor. We call the column
''The Medicine Chest.''
For weekend release.
 
    By ARTHUR J. SNIDER
(c) 1977 Chicago Daily News
    Plastic surgeons now have had enough experience with facelift
operations to say that the correction will last as long as
14 years and as few as 4.
    The difference depends on the patient's herdity. Those with
fair skin and reddish hair or those whose family history is one
of early ''aging'' will last a shorter amount of time. This also
is the case for those who have received radiation therapy (usually
acne) or have been overly exposed to the sun.
    Brunets who have dodged the sun and whose families do not show early
signs of aging will tend to maintain the improved appearance
longer.
    How many times can a face-lift be done in a lieftime? There
appears to be no limit, says Dr. Richard B. Stark in the journal,
Contemporary Surgery, and in fact the appearance seems to improve
with frequency.
    ''As more and more patients have repeated rhytidectomy (removal
of facial wrinkles) procedures, their facial features have improved
over their preoperative appearance,'' says DR. Stark. ''This means
that a paitnet's apparent age, as judged by a facial appearance,
not only will keep static but actually will be rolled back.''
    Face-lifts are the third most frequent cosmetic operation. The
nose job (rhinoplasty) is far out in front and blepharoplasty,
removal of eyelid bags and loose eyelid skin is the second
most frequent.
    ''An overly prominent nose affects the facial appearance as
does no other normal aberration,'' says Dr. Stark, a professor of
clinical surgery at Columbia University, New York.
    ''Preoccupation with the idea that one has such a nasal aberration
tends not to disappear with a successful marriage or a happy life.
The payoff to the patient after rhinoplasty can be enormous. It
will result not only in an appearance change but in a change of
identity and often a change of ethnic characteristics.''
    At how young an age can rhinoplasty be done? When nose growth
stops - to make certain that further growth will not mar the result.
In girls, the nose stops growing at the same time as the arms and
legs and with the appearance of signs of puberty - hairiness,
voice change and genital development.
    The hospital stay is brief and the time out of circulation
because of swelling and purple discoloration due to hemorhage is
about two weeks.
    Blepharoplasty is often sought by persons in public life, business
or the professions. Baggy eyelids are more of a factor of heredity
than age. Commonly they become manifest in the teens and often are
passed from mother to daughter. Thus women constitute about
three-fourths of patients.
    Purpose of blepharoplasty is to correct excess eyelid skin which
imparts a hooded appearance to the upper eyelids and wrinkles or
folds to the lower lids. Another purpose is to remove protruding
fat that produces almond-shaped swellings at the inner aspect of
the upper lids and bulges or bags of the lower lids.
    Other less common procedures:
    - Pinning back prominent ears.
    - Elevating and smoothing  furrowed brow.
    - Planing or peeling away the finely-etched lines of the face.
    - Building up a recessive chin.
    - Breast reduction to relieve overgrowth, upper back and neck
pain, shoulder grooves from brassiere straps, dowager hump.
    - Breast augmentation to increase the size of small breasts.
    - Straightening the abdominal profile by removing the fat apron
at the midsection.
    - Removing the sag from the buttocks and the accumulation of fat
in the thighs.
rl    (ENDIT SNIDER) 09-14
 
 
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