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Postoperative short nose deformities in Asian patients mostly caused by silicone-related capsule contracture

To correct postoperative short nose in Asian patients, revision usually involves more than one kind of surgical technique and researchers introduced a novel cartilage flap technique in a subset of these patients.

In a population of 41 Asian patients with postoperative short nose seeking revision rhinoplasty, researchers noted the types of dorsal implant used in the prior surgery and examined the various surgical techniques used for the revision rhinoplasties.

Silicone was the most commonly used dorsal graft in previous rhinoplasty, followed by fascia with or without cartilage.

Surgeons used many different surgical techniques including septal reconstruction, cartilage flap technique, tip surgery, lateral compartment correction and dorsal augmentation.

Eleven patients (27%) experienced postoperative complications, such as infection, nostril asymmetry and pollybeak deformity.

In the five cases with postoperative wound problems, silicone was used as the dorsal augmentation graft in previous surgery.

Nasal length improved significant with a mean 12% increase, after revision surgery.

Postoperative nasal tip projections were a mean of 13.4% longer after surgery.

Researchers found that short nose in Asian patients is associated most commonly with prior silicone implantation.

All patients who experienced wound-healing problems after revision surgery had previously undergone silicone implantation.

Researchers also designed a cartilage flap technique for eight patients with severe scarring and fibrosis of the skin soft-tissue envelopes. – by Abigail Sutton

Disclosure: The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.