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Progressive craniofacial bone loss after cosmetic surgery at the forehead

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Abstract

We present the case of a 59-year-old woman with a history of plastic surgery at the forehead who complained of progressive indentations at the frontal skull. CT and MR scans revealed significant bone thinning, presenting as lytic skull lesions, which progressed over a period of 3 years. Biopsies were obtained from the lytic lesions and histology showed fibrotic tissue, synthetic residue of previous cosmetic procedure, and no evidence of infection or neoplasm. Progressive cranial bone resorption places the patient at increased risk for cerebral injury. This case highlights a potential complication after cosmetic facial surgery, with bony resorption resulting in both skull deformation and increased risk for cerebral injury.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, 400 Parnassus Ave., A 367, Box 0628, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0628, USA

    Annie P. Prasad & Thomas M. Link

  2. Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Vijay George & Andrew E. Horvai

  3. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Andrew Gross

  4. Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Anne Porzig & Dolores Shoback

Authors
  1. Annie P. Prasad
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  2. Vijay George
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  3. Anne Porzig
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  4. Andrew E. Horvai
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  5. Andrew Gross
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  6. Dolores Shoback
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  7. Thomas M. Link
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas M. Link.

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Prasad, A.P., George, V., Porzig, A. et al. Progressive craniofacial bone loss after cosmetic surgery at the forehead. Skeletal Radiol 41, 477–481 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-011-1330-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-011-1330-0

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