Can Skull Augmentation Be Done With Using Only Bone Grafts?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Can you do skull augmentation  surgery with bone grafting? No synthetic or artificial materials should be used.

A: The short answer is no. The long answer is… while skull defects are treated by autologous bone grafting aesthetic skull augmentations can not. Besides the wide open coronal scalp incision needed to do it there is the amount of bone grafting that would be needed and the associated morbidity of the harvest site. (e.g., a 150cc skull implant would require almost the entire fibula of the leg to be harvested for an equal volume or 6 ribs are needed) Then there is the biologic changes that happens to all onlay bone grafts to the skull or face…they undergo variable amounts of resorption and end up with a very irregular surface.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon