Background: Skin lifting alone in face-lifting surgery is limited to minor lifts in younger patients. The extent of skin undermining depends on the operative plan.
Aims: An optimal aim is to minimize the amount of undermining to achieve a pleasing, natural rejuvenated result.
Results: By respecting the extensive network of the dermal vascular plexus and by good surgical technique, ischaemia of the elevated skin may be minimized.
Conclusion: Moderate to maximal lifting, however, has proven to be anatomically sound in over 1500 cases operated on over the last 20 years using classical face-lift techniques to correct the pathoanatomy of the ageing face.