Temporal Reduction Surgery to Reduce Head Width

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have two questions about temporal reduction surgery.

1. How long time does it take removing the posterior temporalis muscle? If you already have made an coronal incision and the only thing that is to be done is removing the muscle?

2. How is it with scar tissue after skull reduction? I have had it done by a European Doctor and I now have 5 mm of scar tissue beneath my scalp. Does this happen when you do skull reduction? Is it possible to remove this scar tissue? 

A: In answer to your temporal reduction questions:

1) Whether one has en existing coronal incision or not (a coronal incision is never used for temporal reduction) the time it takes to do the surgery is the same. The presence of a corona scar only make sit possible to do a more direct approach to muscle removal but it does not shorten the operative time.

2) Sealing the bleeding bone and using a postoperative drain in my experience leads to minimal scar tissue formation under the scalp and minimal to no bone regeneration. If you have scar tissue present from a prior skull reduction procedure, it can be subsequently removed during another skull procedure.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana