Depressed forehead scars are not frequently reported in the literature in the West African sub-region. Although they are not commonly reported, few cases were managed and are to be documented. We had seen a case of depressed forehead scar which was due to post frontal avulsion injury of the forehead with an intact posterior table of the frontal bone. He complained of aesthetic and psychological problems of the scar on presentation. The scar revision was done with polymethylmethacrylate bone cement with simple wound closure based on patient’s choice after counseling. The treatment outcome was satisfactory. We intend to highlight the use of polymethylmethacrylate bone cement and simple wound closure as an option in the revision of depressed forehead scars as well as add a report to the volume of literature from the sub-region.

BackgroundBurns present a devastating injury to patients. Burns caused by chemical agents, present a worse scenario. In a resource limited country like Nigeria, readily available sources of these corrosive agents are mainly from lead-acid battery vendors and to some extent local small scale soap manufacturers who use caustic soda. We hypothesized that with the reduction in small scale soap manufacturing and increasing trend towards modernization in the use of dry cell batteries, chemical burns may be on the decline, and we sought to investigate this.MethodsThe records of all acute burn patients seen at the Burns and Plastic Department of the National Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu Nigeria between January 2011 and December 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. The results were compared to similar studies carried out at the same centre. A questionnaire was administered to corrosive chemical (sulphuric and caustic soda) vendors to assess the trends in product sales and use in recent times.ResultsA total of 624 acute burn cases were treated during the period; among which, 12 cases (1.9%) were chemical burns. When compared with previous studies at the centre, Chemical burn cases were  recorded as the lowest rate. The median age of patients was 24 years. There were eight males and four females. Interpersonal assault was the commonest mechanism of injury with sulphuric acid suspected to be the commonest agent in 83.3% of the cases, while 16.7% of the cases were from accidental use of caustic soda. The head and neck as well as the upper limbs were the most affected (30%).Twenty-six questionnaires to lead-acid vendors were analyzed and revealed that all respondents noticed a marked downward trend in the sale of either sulphuric acid or caustic soda, and they attributed this to the ready availability of imported alternatives to locally manufactured soap or wet lead-acid batteries. Ease of use, durability and convenience of the dry cell batteries were cited as principal reasons.ConclusionThere appears to be a downward trend in the prevalence of chemical burns in our study compared to previous studies in the centre which may be due to reduced availability and access of corrosive chemicals to the general public. Further prospective multicentre studies to confirm this are recommended.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s41038-017-0072-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Lip reduction is a plastic surgery procedure that enhances facial appearance by reducing the volume of   lower, upper or both lips. This procedure finds its usefulness in the present day lip reduction plasty as a form of cosmetic surgery. We present a 28-year- old female who complained of broad lips with a portion of red (wet) vermilion exposed when the mouth was closed. We present this rare aesthetic surgical procedure in our hospital and also a search of relevant literature. Level of Evidence: level 1V