New outreach of ultrasound in aesthetic medicine: a systematic review

Background. Aesthetic medicine and plastic surgery accrue with new methods for aging correction by year. Research is aimed at reducing the acute complications risk of aesthetic surgeries and finding effective routes of their diagnosis and treatment. Vascular and non-vascular contouring complications imaging, thread implantation, atrophic postacne scars, postpartum striae, posttraumatic and postoperative scars remain the topical issues.

Objectives. A review of current imaging techniques in aesthetic medicine to outline promising avenues in the diagnostics of atrophia cicatrix using high-resolution ultrasound methods.

Methods. Bibliography was mined and analysed in the PubMed, eLibrary, Web of Science, Cyberleninka and Cochrane Library databases for the period of 2017–2021. Content analysis was used with the keyword queries: facial ultrasound [ультразвуковая диагностика кожи], ultrasound in dermatology [диагностика в косметологии], contouring complications [осложнения контурной пластики], complications in cosmetology, complications of hardware rejuvenation [осложнения аппаратного омоложения], atrophic scar diagnostics [диагностика рубцовых атрофий].

Results. Among 351 studied, 57 sources were included in the review. An analysis of past-decade national and foreign literature revealed prevalence of surface linear array 12 and 14 MHz transducers in ultrasonic (US) cosmetology. High-frequency transducers in dermatology and aesthetic medicine have actively developed in recent years. Evidence is published on vascular and non-vascular facial contouring complications diagnosis, aesthetic thread implantation, aging dynamics, psoriasis and onychomycosis control. Scar imaging studies are sparse and not uncovering the full US potential to control their various-stage treatment.

Conclusion. A dynamic advancement of high-resolution US in aesthetic medicine paves the promising ways of research into the US capacities for various-origin atrophic scar diagnosis, informative diagnostic criteria elaboration and the development of prognostic and treatment efficacy control techniques.