An attempt to harness the viscoelastic properties of skin in face lift operations--a preliminary report.

In 16 women who underwent face lift operations, we performed intraoperative stretching of the undermined facial and neck skin using either a silicone bag for expansion or skin traction sutures. The object of this endeavor was to attempt to harness the viscoelastic properties of the skin to maximize the amount of skin excision and so improve the overall long-term operative results. We believe we were successful with both techniques. It is not clear at this juncture whether the long-term results of this one-stage procedure will approximate those of the two-stage procedure, which were consistently satisfactory.