All the definitions
This is the glossary of aesthetic surgery, listing the definitions of the terms used on this site. The entries follow the order of the French version.
Abdominoplasty
Surgery of the abdomen that removes the excess skin and fat of the stomach, most often after a pregnancy or significant weight loss. It is frequently combined with re-tensioning of the rectus muscles where there is a diastasis.
Breast augmentation
The operation that increases the volume of the breasts. It is most often carried out with an implant.
Autologous
Means something that comes from the patient themselves. We speak of autologous fat injection in lipofilling, and of autologous breast reconstruction after mastectomy where the reconstruction uses no implant but only the patient's own tissues.
Blepharoplasty
Surgery of the eyelids. Upper blepharoplasty removes the excess skin that weighs the eyes down; lower blepharoplasty treats eyelid bags and, more rarely, excess skin beneath the eye.
Lower blepharoplasty
The operation that treats eyelid bags and, where present, the excess skin of the lower eyelid. It is most often carried out by the transconjunctival approach, with no skin scar.
Upper blepharoplasty
The operation that removes the excess skin of the upper eyelid, and if needed a small amount of fat, to lighten a heavy-looking eye. The scar is concealed in the natural crease of the lid.
Brachioplasty
The medical name for the arm lift: correction of the excess skin of the inner arm, common after significant weight loss.
Tear troughs
Colouring or hollowing beneath the eyes. The pigmented shadow is a colouring of the skin and is not a matter for surgery; the hollow trough is a deficit of volume at the eyelid-cheek junction, correctable by repositioning fat or by injecting hyaluronic acid.
Capsular contracture
Fibrous contraction around a breast implant, occurring in 1 to 2 % of patients. There are several grades of severity: 1/ neither visible nor palpable; 2/ not visible but the breast is firm on palpation; 3/ visible, palpable and not painful; 4/ painful.
Thighplasty
The operation that changes the appearance of the thighs, most often by a lift of the inner thigh.
Diastasis
Abnormal and permanent separation of two structures that are normally very close together. We speak of diastasis of the rectus abdominis muscles (abnormal separation of the abdominal rectus muscles). Treatment or repair of a diastasis consists in surgically closing that abnormal gap.
Dual plane
A position in which a breast implant can be placed: the upper part of the implant lies behind the pectoralis major muscle, the lower part in front of the muscle and behind the gland.
Ectropion
Outward turning of the lower eyelid, which loses contact with the eyeball. It causes watering and chronic irritation. Its correction rests on re-tensioning the support of the eyelid.
Prior authorisation
The procedure by which French health insurance gives its agreement before a procedure that may be reimbursed is carried out. It concerns certain reconstructive indications: breast reduction, gynaecomastia, tuberous breasts, reconstruction after cancer.
Aesthetic
Relating to the perception of beauty and to the feeling it gives rise to.
Gynaecomastia
Abnormal development of the breast gland in a man, on one or both sides. To be distinguished from adipomastia, which is a simple excess of fat.
Deep plane lift
A facelift technique in which the dissection is carried out beneath the SMAS, in the deep plane. It makes it possible to release the retaining ligaments and to reposition the tissues without placing tension on the skin.
Malar lift
The operation that repositions the tissues of the dropped cheekbone upwards, generally during the same operation as a cervicofacial lift.
Vertical deep plane lift
A lift carried out in the deep plane and repositioning the tissues along a vertical vector, as opposed to lateral traction, which flattens the cheeks and gives a stretched appearance.
Lipofilling
Harvesting of fat by liposuction, then reinjection as micro-deposits into an area to be reshaped. Part of the graft is resorbed: allow 30 to 50 % according to the area. Also called fat grafting.
Mastopexy
The medical name for correction of breast ptosis: reshaping of the gland, repositioning of the areola and removal of the excess skin, without any necessary change in volume.
Rounded eye
Drop of the free margin of the lower eyelid, exposing the white of the eye below the iris. The eye loses its almond shape and looks staring. The stage preceding ectropion.
Malar bags
Swelling situated on the cheekbone, below the orbital rim, sometimes called festoons. Distinct from eyelid bags: a lower blepharoplasty does not correct them and may make them more visible.
Eyelid bags
Bulging of the orbital fat beneath the eyes, caused by stretching of the septum that holds it back. It is not an excess of fat but a failure of containment. To be distinguished from tear troughs and malar bags.
Breast ptosis
Descent of the gland and of the areola below the inframammary fold, together with laxity of the skin.
SMAS
Superficial musculoaponeurotic system: the fibrous sheet that supports the tissues of the face and continues into the neck as the platysma muscle. Its laxity produces jowls and the loss of the cervicomental angle. Re-tensioning it is the essential stage of a facelift.