Post burn scaring and reconstruction of the scalp is
common condition, which is challenging to plastic surgeons.
Which might lead to social deprivation and severe psychological
trauma, and patients always try to hide these areas with
scarf, hats, wigs, etc…. Although these attempts are common
and useful for the vertex and occipital region, temporo-parietal,
temporal, and sideburn are difficult to be camouflaged.
Different ways of reconstruction were used including:
Serial scar excision, follicular hair transplant, tissue expansion,
regional or remote tissue transfer with local or free flaps have
been described.
Although tissue expansion is the best and most popular
method for scalp reconstruction, the results might be unexpected
and displeasing. Searching on English speaking literature,
in all previous studies, success was attributed to the
expansion process in relation to the size, location of the
alopecia and donor area ignoring the importance of achieving
the exact or near normal pattern of hair line and symmetry of
the temporal, temporo-partial and side burn regions. This is
due to the absence of a simple method to guide surgeons while
planning and reconstructing this critical zone. In this study,
I am presenting a simple method utilizing the tissue expansion
for reconstruction of sideburn, temporal, and temporo-partial
alopecia to achieve satisfactory, symmetry and near normal
reconstruction.
This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively maintained
records of 29 patients, was conducted from February 2016 to
May 2018 in the Department of Plastic Surgery, Ain Shams
University, Cairo, Egypt. Twenty nine patients with scalp < br />burn alopecia of age 6 to 35 years were included in this study.
All patients were examined and assessment was done by
objective and subjective analysis.
The results shows that by using this simple method to
reconstruct temporal and lateral side burn area, it is proven
from the objective and subjective evaluation the aesthetic
outcome was satisfactory, symmetrical and standardized.