Facelift surgery holds up 5 years later

More than five years after facelift surgery, three-fourths of patients still looked younger than they did before surgery, British and Scottish researchers say. Dr. Barry M. Jones of King Edward VII Hospital in London and Steven J. Lo of Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit in Glasgow said although some facial areas showed signs of aging, a range of objective and subjective assessments demonstrated long-lasting results. "This study provides strong evidence that facelift surgery can provide significant long-term aesthetic gains," Jones and Lo said in a statement. The researchers analyzed standardized photographs of 50 patients who had undergone facelift surgery an average of 5.5 years previously. Three sets of assessments were performed to determine how well the facelift results held up over time: -- Objective measurements--such as jowl height and the angle of the chin to the neck. -- Subjective assessments of key areas, such as lines from the nose to mouth and mouth to chin. -- Overall subjective assessment or global score of the patient's appearance. The study, scheduled to be published in the December issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, found all three sets of assessments showed significant improvement although with some loss of improvement in the years since facelift surgery. "Scoring suggested that 76 percent of patients would still look younger 5 1/2 years after a facelift than they did prior to the facelift," Jones and Lo wrote.