Diagnosis and technical refinements in rhytidectomy: a personal approach.

The scared look caused by the overcorrection of the frontal area and mobilization of the lateral canthus of the eye and mouth are frequent complications or failures in rhytidectomy. These complications are usually related to poor surgical planning originating at imprecise preoperatory diagnosis. Many problems can be avoided and the results improved when the patient undergoes a meticulous preoperatory examination and a precise diagnosis is achieved in each facial segment. This allows the appropriate surgical technique to be chosen for each case, including the full orbital septum opening to sculpture the eyelids, the liposuction and SMAS plication to sculpture the face, and cervical and submental platysma plication to sculpture the neck. The presented standardization has been shown to be very efficient as far as technical performance and postoperatory results are concerned.