Managing Soft Tissue Defects in Parry-Romberg Syndrome: An Individualized Approach

Area of Science:

• Plastic Surgery
• Craniofacial Surgery
• Regenerative Medicine

Background:

• Parry-Romberg syndrome (PRS) involves progressive, unilateral facial tissue degeneration.
• Managing PRS is challenging due to its heterogeneity and unpredictable nature.
• Limited guidelines exist for surgical intervention in PRS, necessitating tailored approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a patient-specific surgical approach for Parry-Romberg syndrome.
• To optimize surgical outcomes for the diverse manifestations of PRS.
• To establish a foundation for standardized PRS surgical management guidelines.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of 11 patients undergoing surgical correction for PRS (2012-2022).
• Surgical interventions were selected based on defect location and severity.
• Procedures included fat grafting, dermal fat grafting, and buried free flaps, with tailored revisions.

Main Results:

• An average of 3.2 procedures per patient were performed.
• Fat grafting effectively treated mild deficits and upper-third deficits.
• Combined free flaps and fat grafting achieved satisfactory results for moderate to severe mid/lower face defects.
• All patients reported satisfactory or excellent outcomes post-revision.

Conclusions:

• A tailored surgical strategy considering individual deficits improves PRS management.
• This approach yields aesthetically pleasing and reliable results, consistent with existing literature.
• The proposed method can inform standardized guidelines and enhance PRS patient prognosis.