How Does Tissue Mobilization Help In Forehead Scar Revision?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am undergoing scar revision from a bad forehead injury and my plastic surgeon said he would use forehead skin mobilization? I looked it up and only one example came up. Will this technique move my current scar in a different direction? How big would my new scar be after the direct scar excision? When I think of the word total forehead mobilization I think of my forhead being lifted and moved around. What does this mean and how does it work to improve the appearance of the final scar? I was initially interested in tissue expansion help my forehead scar but my doctor said that was too extreme and didn’t need to be done for my smaller scar issue.

A: Tissue mobilization means the tissues around the scar are freed up so that the wound closure after scar excision is not tight. Tension is the biggest enemy for maintaining a narrow scar and is undoubtably why many initial excision ended up with scars the re-widen afterwards. This is particulalry true in the tight tissue of the forehead. Tissue mobilization is a technique to make more tissue around the excision site available for wound closure. It is in some ways a poor man's tissue expansion method. The location of the scar does not change nor will it be any longer when subperiosteal tissue mobilization is done in forehead scar revision.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana