Faster Facelift Recovery

Posted Thursday, September 13, 2007 to MARKETSPACE > Home Recovery

Posted by The Original Anti-Aging & Cosmetic Surgery Magazine

A new product to America is minimizing swelling, bruising and recovery time after a facelift. Jodi Thiessen spoke with New Jersey plastic surgeon Sherwood Baxt MD.

There was a time when a facelift meant hours on the operating table and weeks in recovery. While the final results after healing may be exceptional, the painful and time-consuming recuperation can be disheartening. A new product from Europe called Tisseel may change facelift postoperative recovery forever.

New Jersey plastic surgeon Sherwood Baxt MD has already been using Tisseel, and has evidenced less bruising and swelling than was typical following a traditional facelift. In fact, he's been taped performing the procedure live on CBS and FOX. This quicker recovery is good news for prospective facelift candidates-meaning less time recovering and more time enjoying the new look.

"It's the after-care of a facelift that's the big concern," says Dr. Baxt. "These patients go home with great big bandages on, often with drains, and when we see them the next day they can even be claustrophobic from the bandages." He adds, "They get tremendously swollen, and tremendously black and blue. It takes at least 3 weeks or so before they start to look what's called socially acceptable. That is certainly not the final end result."

Tisseel is essentially a tissue glue, used during a radional facelift procedure. The glue's function is to eliminate the need to cut the excess skin and reattach it. Dr Baxt said: "Now, instead of just lifting up the skin, trimming off the extra, and suturing it under a fair amount of tension, we could glue the whole skin right back down to this new firm base. This would eliminate the open space for blood or extra fluid to accumulate, meaning there would be very little swelling and virtually no bruising. In Europe, this has been done for the last 20 years now."

Tisseel is now produced by Baxter,one of the largest international drug companies in the world. This product was just FDA approved about a year ago. With this miracle breakthrough, what took so long for the approval, and why are plastic surgeons just beginning to hear about this now? "I've been following this product for at least 10 years now. I've known about it for 10 years, and have wondered when we would come around to this. The reason for the delay is that Tisseel is made from human blood products. So with all the fuss about hepatitis and HIV,it has taken this long for it to be FDA approved."

These concerns have now been put to rest. The blood used to make Tisseel is totally sterilized. To make the glue,various components found in blood which cause clotting are extracted. Dr.Baxt explained: "When we're using the tissue glue during a facelift, we spray the clear fluid into the wound just as we're putting everything back down again. The incision is then held gently with both hands in an upward direction along the cheeks and the neck for exactly three minutes." The skin is still sutured into place, but now, instead of heavy sutures, light dissolving stitches are used, since there's no tension whatsoever.

"When you lift all the way along, and you hold up the skin as it's being glued down to the base," he described, "it's now adhering along the length from the Adams apple to the ear." This takes the tension away from the incision site and spreads it evenly the length of the whole cheek and neck area.

"The wound edges fall together and we end up with better scars. And of course, we obviate all of the dressings, the drains, and bruising and the swelling," said Dr Baxt. More skin is able to be removed without getting a pulled look. That pulled look comes from trying to suspend everything from the skin alone.

With Tisseel, patients are able to go out into public after about 3 days, instead of 3 weeks. There is still some minor swelling and bruising to contend with, which takes several months to completely heal.

New products like Tisseel are helping plastic surgeons, like Dr Baxt, offer their patients minimal downtime and discomfort following their procedure. While still new in the American market, with such a phenomenal track record in Europe, we may be seeing a glimpse of the future of facelifts.

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