Temporal Artery Ligation

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am very excited about finding your webpage, discovered by searching for ways/methods to remove/hide my two bulging temple veins/arteries. They are very prominent, especially when in the sun, after exercise, after an alcoholic beverage, in a hot room, or after a salt-enriched meal. Been dealing with these for 15 years and I am ready to just pull them out. I am bald and shave the rest of my head, so their prominence is highly noticeable and “causing a complex” doesn’t begin to describe the frustration and discomfort in my life . After seeing the explanation of the temporal augmentation process, with the photo of the man’s head with the incision and implant on is temple, I have a few questions. I am curious if the temporal augmentation implant can be placed in between the temple arteries and the skin? Thus putting a shield over the vein and permanently keeping it masked to never be seen again. If yes, you have answered my prayers. If yes, how big is the incision? Thank you for any information that can help me.

A: In eliminating or decreasing the appearance of temporal arteries, you can not put any implant between them and the skin for a number of reasons including risk of arterial rupture, visibility of the implant’s outline through the skin and the length of the incision needed to place them. In theory one could use that ‘camouflage’ approach with fat injections but I doubt that would be very effective and would create its own lumpy appearance issues. The proven treatment for prominent temporal arteries is multiple point temporal artery ligation that is done through several very small incisions. Temporal artery ligation is a procedure done under local anesthesia in the office after tracing out the pathway of the prominent temporal arteries.

I would need to see some pictures of your prominent temporal arteries to see if temporal artery ligation would work for you.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana