Am I A Good Candidate for a Knee Lift?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Unfortunately it is not easy to show in pictures how my knees look. Therefore I sent the video. The upper part of the knees is actually fat and skin. Hope this helps ?

A:Thank you for sending the additional pictures. What you are not factoring into the consideration of any knee lift with and supra patellar tissue excision is what happens when the knee is bent at 90°. Lifts that cross a mobile joint such as elbows and knees must consider what happens to the stretch on the scar line when the joint is bent at 90° or greater is this will ultimately determine how well the resultant scar will appear. Take this same amount of pinched up tissue in the extended position and then bend your knees at 90° or greater and see what happens. You will find out quickly that the pinched up tissue becomes stretched out and under much greater tension. This is what will happen to the scar line in that situation and the result will be that you will likely have a scar problem that you will dislike much worse than the original problem that it was intended to solve. The best knee lift candidates are those that have  several olds of skin in the suprapatellar area in the extended position which reduces to one fold when the knees is bent at 90°. Excision in the situation results in a much more favorable scar trade-off.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon