LAUSR

INTRODUCTION The deep fascia is important in facelift surgery as it is relied on for protection of the facial nerve during surgical dissection. Lack of consistency with the term may be due to the term deep fascia having two different meanings. It is a specific type of connective tissue, classically, thin, fibrous and flat. Whereas, in the description of the layers of the face and neck, the deep fascia layer includes all the connective tissue deep to the superficial fascia layer. This cadaver study was undertaken to clarify the layered anatomy of the face and neck and its relationship with the facial nerve branches. MATERIALS METHODS Preliminary dissections and macro sectioning, followed by a conclusive series of standardized layered dissections, histology and sheet plastination, was performed on fifty cadaver heads. RESULTS The deep fascia is thin in convex areas of the face and neck, while thicker in concave areas, it being interspersed with deep fat. The facial nerve branches, after emerging from the parotid gland, are embedded within the deep fascia, not deep to it. They transition from deep within the deep fascia at specific locations to course in the most superficial part of the deep fascia where they underlie their target superficial fascia muscles and are at risk from deep plane facelift dissection. CONCLUSION The deep fascia layer is a multilamellar fibrofatty layer of variable thickness, which includes the deep fat in which the facial nerve branches are embedded. In deep plane facelift surgery, dissection must be performed in the most superficial level of this deep fascia layer. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE No level of evidence is needed for Cadaver Study Articles.