Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the sequential postoperative changes in tip aesthetics, by evaluating the aesthetic performance of the septal extension graft with or without tip grafting.
Methods: A total of 62 patients who underwent rhinoplasty with tip plasty were included. Using a three-dimensional scanner, we measured anthropometric aesthetic features of the nasal tip, including tip height, tip width, nasolabial angle, and columellar lobular angle. Preoperative and 1-month and 12-month postoperative anthropometric parameters were compared. The patients were grouped according to surgical techniques (i.e., septal extension only and septal extension plus tip grafting groups) and subtype of tip graft.
Results: The 1-month postoperative values of all four aesthetic features were significantly increased compared with the preoperative values. The tip height, tip width, and nasolabial angle at 12 months were significantly decreased compared with 1 month post-operation values, whereas the tip height and width were still greater than the preoperative values. No difference was found between 1 and 12 month values of columellar lobular angle. There were no differences in the degree of decrease in tip height, tip width, nasolabial angle, and columellar lobular angle between the septal extension graft only and septal extension graft plus tip graft groups. There were no differences in the tip graft by subtypes, single- and multi-layer tip grafts.
Conclusions: Increased tip height, tip width, and widened nasolabial angle gained immediately after septal extension grafting surgery gradually decreased over the year regardless of addition of tip graft or tip grafting methods.
Level of evidence: 4 Laryngoscope, 134:678-683, 2024.
Keywords: 3D scanning; open rhinoplasty; septal extension graft; tip aesthetics; tip graft.
© 2023 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.