Impact of subnasal lip lift on lip aesthetic: a systematic review

This study is to perform a systematic review of the literature on surgical correction of the upper lip in order to assess whether the subnasal lip lift technique improves lip aesthetics and maintains its stability. A systematic search was carried out using the PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Cochrane Library and EMBASE databases, based on records published until July 2020. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. In the absence of randomized clinical trials, prospective or retrospective cohort studies, case control and case series were considered eligible. Of the 464 articles initially found by the two reviewers, 4 were selected, with 2 retrospective cohorts and 2 case series. The results of the studies showed that 92.4% of subnasal lip lift cases were performed in women with an age range between 21 and 65 years (mean of 36.6 years). Only one of the 4 studies did not contain information regarding the sex and age of the patients. The bull's horn excision pattern for subnasal lip lift was used to perform the subnasal lip lift in 75% of the included studies. All studies pointed to an improvement in lip aesthetics after the subnasal lip lift, based on anthropometric measures and the degree of patient satisfaction while maintaining results for varying periods of time (from 12 to 59.1 months). The studies included in this review suggest that the subnasal lip lift improves lip aesthetics in adult patients and maintains its stability for a certain period of time.