Comparison of Hamra's and Mendelson's Models of Midface Lift

The aim of this study was to compare Hamra's and Mendelson's models of midface lift.The terms "Hamra ST" and "Mendelson BC" were used to search PubMed, yielding 35 and 48 papers, respectively. Of the 83 abstracts, 55 were excluded and 28 full papers discussing midface lift were reviewed. Among those 28 papers, 13 were excluded because they did not have sufficient content. Among the 15 full texts, 5 mined papers were added. Thereafter, 20 papers were analyzed.Hamra's description of his surgical technique changed twice. In 1990 (The Deep-Plane Rhytidectomy), he wrote that he performed Skoog-type subsuperficial muscular aponeurotic system (SMAS) dissection to the nasolabial fold. In 1992 (Composite Rhytidectomy), however, he cited a paper insisting that the SMAS does not exist in the cheek area. He wrote that his deep-plane rhytidectomy was not a sub-SMAS procedure, stating that he dissected the cheek fat that is attached to the zygomaticus major, then repositioned the skin. This was a substantially different explanation of the dissection plane. In 1997, he stated that instead of dividing the orbicularis oculi muscle from the zygomaticus major and minor, he elevated them together in a flap. Thus, his method returned to the sub-SMAS plane. Mendelson introduced the concepts of the prezygomatic space, orbicularis-retaining ligament, and zygomatic-retaining ligament, and proposed an anatomical model.If the authors explain Hamra's zygorbicular dissection using Mendelson's model, the dissection starts just beneath the roof of the prezygomatic space, traverses the floor, and then releases the zygomatic ligament (lower boundary of the space). The authors should consider the necessity and riskiness of this release.