Eyelid Surgery (Blepharoplasty)

Its been too long, but my absence from the blog scene was for good reason. I’ve been busy traveling around Europe speaking about Functional Rhinoplasty, Cosmetic Rhinoplasty, and the Patient-Physician Relationship. Our trip spanned the two weeks between the last week of August and the first few weeks of September, with the Labor Day weekend as the middle weekend of the trip. Accompanying me were my wife Melissa and our son Dimitri. Our trip started in Paris, the only stop that had nothing to do with Facial Plastic Surgery. Dimitri loved the Louvre, where he was able to visit the Mona Lisa, who he had studied in school. I recently saw a History Channel segment hypothesizing the Mona Lisa was a self-portrait of Leonardo DaVinci. Kind of takes the wind out of one’s sail thinking about that. Whoever she was, she certainly captured a mysterious beauty that is more androgynous than feminine, but certainly not masculine.

After Paris, we flew to Porto, Portugal for the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery’s Annual Meeting. I gave lectures about Cartilage Grafting in Rhinoplasty and the Patient-Physician Relationship, and a one-hour course on Rhinoplasty: From Planning through Recovery. Porto is a beautiful city perched on a hill overlooking the Douro River and resting beside the Atlantic Ocean. Famous for the center of port wine production, it is an old, beautiful city with winding streets. It is also the musical and cultural center of Portugal. The closing dinner was a highlight of the trip, held in Taylor Wine Cellars where great food and wine was accompanied by a cabaret of Broadway show numbers. Portuguese wine is an amazing value for its price, with rich reds that stand up to the biggest meats. Fortunately they are becoming easier to find in New York.

Munich, Germany was our last stop. This was my first visit to Germany, and I was surprised that Munich, the capital of Bavaria, was a beautiful old city with numerous outstanding restaurants and the ever-present Bavarian beer. Our hotel, Tobrau House, was in the center of the old city having been built in 1490. Many of the buildings withstood the heavy Allied bombings that leveled most of the outer city during WWII, so Munich retains much of its old-world charm. It is an easy city to negotiate, and the locals are friendly and very proud of their heritage.

In Munich, I spoke at the largest Head & Neck training program in Germany at their annual Rhinoplasty Course. Day 1 included lectures by me on Functional Rhinoplasty, Cartilage Grafting in Rhinoplasty, Advanced Tip Techniques in Rhinoplasty, and the Patient-Physician Relationship. Day 2 was Live Surgery, where I performed a Functional Rhinoplasty on one of the most crooked noses and septums that I have seen in my career.

My patient was an Iranian immigrant who spoke only Arabic. He had a friend who spoke Arabic, German and Greek, so we were all able to communicate with only one level of translation. He had been a boxer and was known for his immense nose. I could imagine the young attending in the clinic seeing him and thinking, “Have I got a case for the famous visiting professor (ME!).” Surgery, piped in live to an auditorium of 50 course participants, was difficult and tedious and took 4 hours to complete. In the end, after extensive reductions of tissue volume while adding strengthening structural grafts, I left him with a nose that would work a lot better and look much straighter and smaller, though still masculine. The audience was impressed and I was confident that I had taught them something beneficial, thanks to this courageous Iranian.