Skull Reshaping

Q: Dr. Eppley, On your website you seem to do plastic surgery related to skull reshaping. Has there ever been a case where someone had macrocephaly or a head circumference of 24.5 inches where you reduced this to 22 inches? I don’t think burring would accomplish that much. Would a craniectomy (or removing part of the skull) accomplish this or is that too dangerous. I have been able to reduce the size some myself by constricting and applying pressure to the scalp from different angles in a similar way a baby is fitted with a cranial mold. 

A: The simple answer to your skull reshaping question is that burring is all you can do. You are not going to a craniectomy for an aesthetic skull size concern for a number of reasons including surgical risks, bony irregulatiies and, if nothing more, sheer cost. That is an operation that will cost $50,000+ to do with a neurosurgeon.

No one is able to have their skull reduced by 2 inches or more in circumference even with a craniectomy. (you have forgotten to take into account the space the brain needs which will tolerate no inward push)

Whatever reduction you have obtained by ‘compressive wrapping’ of the scalp, burring reduction will at least do that if not more. But burring reduction is the only aesthetic skull reshaping option you have.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana