Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors associated with postrhinoplasty mucous cyst (PMC) among adult cleft patients undergoing rhinoplasty. PMC has been reported sporadically in the literature. Its aetiology is uncertain. The purpose of this study was to determine whether three factors, (1) patient age, (2) surgical trauma, and/or (3) use of a nasal septal cartilage graft (NSCG), were risk factors for PMC.
Methods: We organized a retrospective, single-center study and enrolled cleft rhinoplasty patients treated between January 2003 and December 2008. The predictor variables included age at surgery, use of a NSCG, and length of surgery. The primary outcome was presence of PMC. Other study variables included demographic, surgical, and postoperative data. Appropriate descriptive and univariate statistics were calculated, and P < 0.05 was regarded as indicative of statistical significance.
Results: The sample comprised 314 cleft rhinoplasty patients (118 females; 37.6 %) with a mean age of 14.9 ± 10.7 years (range 0-65). Three patients had a PMC after secondary cleft rhinoplasty. Average time to disease was 26 ± 19.3 months after surgery (range 12-48). There was no significant association between the presence of the PMC and the three predictor variables-patient's age, NSCG transplantation, and protracted surgery (P > 0.05).
Conclusions: These study findings suggest that young age, use of a NSCG, and protracted surgery are not risk factors for PMC. The prevalence of PMC is greater for cleft patients after rhinosurgery than for noncleft patients.
Keywords: Cleft rhinoplasty; Mucous cyst; Postsurgery complication; Risk factor.