Natural Ways to Help Skin Healing, Help Decrease Eyelid Swelling

The only ways to help with eyelid swelling is the following:
1. Cold Ice Packs & allergy drops if due to allergy.
2. Steroids drops or pills
3. Surgery
4. Arnica: over the counter:
5. Make up tricks

Many patients have used Arnica gel or cream and it has helped though could not find a study to say it helps particularly for eyelid swelling. Arnica has been reported to help in nose selling after rhinoplasty.

SLC

Despite the low number of recent and high-level evidence publications for NP usage in the plastic surgery population, the vast majority of studies do show a beneficial effect on outcomes, in particular for arnica in reducing postrhinoplasty edema and onion extract products in improving scar pigmentation.14,16-20 While mechanisms of action are not well elucidated, biochemical studies have established constituent properties that are thought to be active. For example, the main constituent of arnica is helenalin, which has reported anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects that may contribute to reduction of postoperative edema. For onion extract products, the onion extract component has multiple effects, including hydration of scar tissue and antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and fibrinolytic properties.17-20 Similarly, silicone has been described as beneficial for scars potentially through hydrating the wound and increasing static charge, in products such as Cybele Scagel. Significantly better outcomes across measures have been reported with onion extract products combined with silicone than when using either component independently.17,19,20

Integrative Medicine in Plastic Surgery: A Systematic Review of Our Literature

Ruan, Qing Zhao MD*; Chen, Austin D.*; Tran, Bao Ngoc N. MD*; Epstein, Sherise BA*+; Fukudome, Eugene Y. MD*; Tobias, Adam M. MD*; Lin, Samuel J. MD, MBA*; Lee, Bernard T. MD, MBA, MPH*; Yeh, Gloria Y. MD, MPH++; Singhal, Dhruv MD*

Author Information

From the *Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School;

+Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health; and

++Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.

Received May 27, 2018, and accepted for publication, after revision August 30, 2018.

Conflicts of interest and sources of funding: none declared.

Presented at the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons 2017 meeting in Birmingham, AL, on September 21 to 22, 2017.

Reprints: Dhruv Singhal, MD, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 110 Francis St, Suite 5A Boston, MA 02215. E-mail:dsinghal@bidmc.harvard.edu

Abstract

Background: Surveys have reported that as high as 80% of plastic surgery patients utilize integrative medicine approaches including natural products (NPs) and mind-body practices (MBPs). Little is known regarding the evidence of benefit of these integrative therapies specifically in a plastic surgery patient population.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of studies in MEDLINE, PubMed, and EMBASE (inception through December 2016) evaluating integrative medicine among plastic surgery patients. Search terms included 76 separate NP and MBP interventions as listed in the 2013 American Board of Integrative Health Medicine Curriculum. Two independent reviewers extracted data from each study, including study type, population, intervention, outcomes, conclusions (beneficial, harmful, or neutral), year of publication, and journal type. Level of evidence was assessed according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Rating Levels of Evidence and Grading Recommendations.

Results: Of 29 studies analyzed, 13 studies (45%) evaluated NPs and 16 (55%) studied MBPs. Level II reproducible evidence supports use of arnica to decrease postoperative edema after rhinoplasty, onion extract to improve scar pigmentation, hypnosis to alleviate perioperative anxiety, and acupuncture to improve perioperative nausea. Level V evidence reports on the risk of bleeding in gingko and kelp use and the risk of infection in acupuncture use. After year 2000, 92% of NP studies versus 44% of MBP studies were published (P = 0.008).

Despite the low number of recent and high-level evidence publications for NP usage in the plastic surgery population, the vast majority of studies do show a beneficial effect on outcomes, in particular for arnica in reducing postrhinoplasty edema and onion extract products in improving scar pigmentation.14,16-20 While mechanisms of action are not well elucidated, biochemical studies have established constituent properties that are thought to be active. For example, the main constituent of arnica is helenalin, which has reported anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects that may contribute to reduction of postoperative edema. For onion extract products, the onion extract component has multiple effects, including hydration of scar tissue and antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and fibrinolytic properties.17-20 Similarly, silicone has been described as beneficial for scars potentially through hydrating the wound and increasing static charge, in products such as Cybele Scagel. Significantly better outcomes across measures have been reported with onion extract products combined with silicone than when using either component independently.17,19,20
Level II-1: Evidence obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomization. Level II–2: Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case-control analytic studies, preferably from more than one center or research group.

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