What Is The Best Method For Webbed Neck Correction?

Q: Dr. Eppley, My grandson has a webbed neck condition but no syndrome attached to it. What is your professional opinion of the procedure  Posterior Cervical Lift and would you perform it? Thank you very much!

A: Like many aesthetic procedures the surgical treatment of the webbed neck has a variety of techniques to improve it, each with their advantages and disadvantages. There is no perfect webbed neck surgery method.

The posterior cervical lift is a variation of a direct webbed neck approach through a flap transposition rather than tissue rearrangements (z-plasties) along the outer web line. It is definitely an improvement over the historic webbed neck method which is effective and also fixes the laterally displaced M-shaped occipital hairline. It does of course create long linear scars that at least are out of the direct line of sight in the frontal view and a bit in the oblique view as well. Are they great scars….no…and they go well below the neck web into the trapezius area in order to work out the dog ears.

In comparison to any indirect webbed neck correction method it produces a more effective result but with more significant scarring. It really comes down to how the patient views the scars and how they value effectiveness vs the scar tradeoff. That is a patient choice. My approach is I don’t tell patients what to do if there is more than one way to do a surgery. I educate the patient on their options and let them decide.

Thus your question of…would you perform it…can be answered two ways:

1) Do I think it is an effective and valid approach to webbed neck corrections? Yes as long as the patient is aware and can accept the scars.

2) Would I do it if asked by an educated patient…yes.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon