What Is The Recovery Like After Knee Lifts?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in knee lifts and want to know if I am a good candidate. Also have you done many?

A: Technically, a knee lift is a simple excisional procedure that is done for rolls of skin above the knees. It is a near full-thickness crescent of skin and fat removed along the suprapatellar crease. Because it is done directly where the skin rolls are, it is tremendously effective. But it does at the expense of a fine line scar above the knee in the crease so a prospective patients must be fairly motivated. (sees a fine line scar as a better alternative to the skin rolls) To keep the resultant scar as narrow as possible, it is important to preoperatively mark the amount of suprapatellar knee tissue excision with the leg both fully extended and bent at 90 degrees to prevent excessive excision of tissue and extreme tension on the scar

Knee lifts have very little recovery and are not associated with much discomfort. The only caveat is that one should avoid doing activities that risk bending the knee beyond 90 degrees for the first month after surgery.

Because of the scar concerns, the request for knee lifts is very infrequent, I have performed about a half dozen knee lift procedures in the past few years.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana