Skull Reduction for Wide Head

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have read quite a bit of informative material on your website. I am particularly interested in a procedure that you offer that is skull shaving. (skull reduction) I have always had a big wide head (wide, but short, I am brachycephalic.). Does it really make a different your procedure of burring into the diploic space? I mean, the cranial vault bone is 7mm thick, at most, I don’t see how it could make a difference visually. Do you have pictures I can see? Also, the docs I spoke to said that the bone will grow back. 

A: In my experience in the properly selected patient when a large enough surface area is covered visual differences do occur from skull reduction surgery. This is most commonly done by skull bone shaving which is achieved by high speed rotary burring using  carbide burr.. The question is not whether external changes occur, but whether the amount of change that occur meets the patient’s expectations. That must be determined in an individual patient basis. Also all in my experience, and I have done lots of skull reduction procedures, bone does not grow back in an adult nor is that biologically possible. You mist guard against excessive scar formation but not bony regrowth

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana