​This young man had suffered a severe electric burn injury to the left side of his face in a workplace accident. He had undergone a split-thickness skin graft surgery from his thigh elsewhere, but excessive graft shrinkage and colour mismatch had left him distraught and depressed with the results.
 
His family had made widespread inquiries regarding facial cosmetic surgery and had been referred to our hospital for management.
 
Upon examination, there was an unsightly scar at the region of the previous split thickness graft on his left cheek. There was also facial disfigurement due to excessive graft shrinkage. Treatment planning was explained to him and he consented to surgery.
 
He underwent facial reconstruction surgery at our hospital through the tissue expansion technique. A device called a tissue expander was inserted underneath normal skin overlying his left cheek that was adjacent to the scarred area. This device was gradually filled with increments of saline solution thus stretching the overlying skin.
 
Once adequate new skin had been obtained over the device, which perfectly matched the normal skin, the scar tissue was excised and the new normal skin was draped over the region of defect. The patient was extremely happy with the results of the surgery and couldn’t stop expressing his amazement at the cosmetic transformation of his face.