Do Most Surgeons Draw Pre-Op Surgical Markings on Your Face While You Are Unconscious?

Most surgeons typically do pre op markings for Facelift and Blepharoplasty when you are awake and sitting up.

This allows the surgeon to evaluate how the tissues lie and fall on the face and enables the surgeon to place the skin in the desired post operative location and make appropriate marks to guide him/her during the surgical procedure.

It is particularly important to make pre operative Facelift and Blepharoplasty markings before any local anesthesia is injected which can distort the skin and make accurate markings nearly impossible.

Each plastic surgeon has his or her own technique, most including myself prefer to have the patient awake and sitting up as gravity can change the features. Also this gives me time to discuss with the patient what I am doing and how and get any additional feedback from my patient. The video below shows marking of a patient before surgery.

I, like many of my colleagues, prefer to mark patients in the awake, upright, and dynamic position.  Preoperative marking is done to highlight anatomic landmarks and to give the Surgeon a general reference point during the procedure.