History of Thread Lifting

The minimally invasive procedures in the field of cosmetic medicine, called petit esthetic surgery, have begun to gain popularity in the 2000s, and for successful procedural outcomes, esthetic, physiological, psychological, and anatomical approaches are required. Especially with regard to anatomy, the necessity of clinical anatomy for minimally invasive procedures arose, other than anatomy for purely academic purposes or surgery that have been conventionally taught in medical schools. So, we, the authors have discussed the anatomical considerations for minimally invasive procedures over the past several years, which are considered to be necessary for the clinicians with the cooperation of many other clinicians using the cadaver study. Based on these studies, the author first tried to sort out the clinical procedures for fillers and botulinum toxin procedures, which are considered to be the safest and most effective methods with consideration of the anatomical characteristics of Asians and Caucasians, rather than just surgical techniques. Then, the author would like to summarize a minimally invasive procedure using thread lifting, to correct the area where improvement only with fillers or toxins is limited. Various methods used for clinical minimally invasive procedures in Asia are briefly summarized as follows (Table 1.1).