Endoscopic excision of subcutaneous tumors in forehead region *
The face is a common site of a variety of benign skin tumors, and epidermal cysts, dermoid cysts, lipomas and osteomas also occur in the forehead region. Generally, skin incision for such tumors is placed on the surface of tumors. However, when a tumor is located in a deep layer of skin, the following problems may occur ; (1) an incision line that is long, (2) the possibility of injury to the temporal branch of the facial, supraorbital and supratrochlearis nerves, and (3) the occurrence of a hypertrophic scar due to pressure on the border of the wound. Endoscopic surgery is applied clinically as minimal invasive surgery in many branches of surgery. In plastic surgery, a branch of surgery in which the cosmetic plane is often emphasized, an operation which does not leave a scar on the skin is ideal. Applications of endoscopy to facial bone osteotomy, facial bone fixation, benign tumor excision, cosmetic surgery procedures such as rhitidectomy, sternal elevation for funnel chest, and muscle flap and omental flap harvesting procedures have heen carried out, and their usefulness has been reported. The following advantages to excision under endoscopy exist for forehead subcutaneous tumors. (1) The skin incision may be made shorter, and more inconspicuous. (2) The operative procedure is comparatively easy. (3) Damage to nerves and blood vessels may be avoided because the operation is done with direct viewing. (4) Postoperative pain is slight. (5) The patient may get out of bed and be released from the hospital after a short time. Although, as a disadvantage, the operation time is a little extended, it should be possible in the future to overcome this problem by improvement of the operative procedure and development of operative instruments such as retractors. (Accepted on May 20, 2000) Kawasaki Igakkaishi 26(2) : 101 -109. 2000
