Sunday, October 28, 2007
13225

Reconstruction with Galeal Flap of Depressed Forehead Region in Progressive Hemifacial Atrophy

Ahmet Duymaz, MD, Furkan Erol Karabekmez, MD, Zekeriya Tosun, MD, Mehtap Karamese, MD, Mustafa Keskin, MD, and Nedim Savaci, MD.

Progressive hemifacial atrophy (PHA) is a rare disorder characterized by slowly progressive self-limited degeneration of the soft tissues of half of the face including dermis, subcutaneous tissue, fat, cartilage, and, sometimes, bone. Characteristically, the atrophy progress slowly during many years and, then, it becomes stable. 21 years-old female patient was admitted to our clinic because of a complaint of left facial atrophy. The physical examination was found facial asymmetry with a marked hypoplasia of the left side of the face including, blepharophimosis, with absence of the medial half of the left brow. Galeal flap from right frontal-parietal area was performed for filling of atrophic site of the left forehead, was added hairy scalp to distal part of the galeal flap for brow reconstruction Many reconstruction techniques including fat grafts, dermal/fat grafts, synthetic filling materials, microvascular tissue transfers, and alloplastic materials were described for soft tissue augmentation in PHA. Particularly, galeal flap is a good choice when compared with free tissue transfer that has high donor area morbidity. In our case, acceptable result has been obtained in respect that both aesthetically and functionally. Galeal flap is a suitable opinion for reconstruction of upper third of the face for PHA because a simple operative technique, aesthetically acceptable results and no major donor area morbidity.
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