Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery
Results of the early use of tissue expansion for giant congenital melanocytic naevi on the scalp and face
Section snippets
Patients and methods
CMN are defined as giant CMN (GCMN) whenever their size is larger than 1% of the total body surface area (TBSA) in the face/neck or more than 2% elsewhere on the body.5 As in burn wound measurements, the patient's palm of the hand (the fingers excluded) is taken as a reference for measuring 1%.
In this cross-sectional observational study all patients were included with GCMN involving scalp or periorbita, who needed TE as part of their operative management. If serial excision could be performed
Results
In our study GCMN at the scalp, forehead or face were excised completely after TE in 17 patients. All patients were seen for follow up. Distribution of age, sex and location of GCMN are shown in Table 1. Patients were followed up for an average of 8.7 years (range 1.5–16 years). Table 1 shows the re-pigmentation and POSAS scores of the patients. Both patients and observers scored the scars as moderate (Table 1). In addition, parents scored the overall impression of the scar formation in the
Discussion
In this paper we showed that GCMN at the scalp or forehead can be excised completely after early tissue expansion. By means of a validated evaluation tool we showed good cosmetic results. In our study period, covering 9 years, no cases of malignancy were observed.
Due to the small number of patients, statistical analyses could not be performed.
In seven patients (18% of the tissue expanders) expander-related complications occurred: exposure of the expander, implant failure or infection all of
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank P. P. M. van Zuijlen for providing the POSAS scale.
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