Measurement of Nasal Skin Thickness and Body Mass Index in Preoperative Rhinoplasty Patients Utilizing Computed Tomography Scanning and Ultrasound Techniques: A Prospective Comparative Study

Abstract

One of the most important indicators of rhinoplasty success is nasal skin thickness. Nasal thickness can lead to irregularities over the osseocartilaginous framework among patients with thin nasal skin and difficulty making tip work changes in patients with thick nasal skin. This study aimed to compare different objective methods. These include computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound (US) techniques, and report the relationship between nasal skin thickness and body mass index (BMI). A prospective cross-sectional study that included all patients at the rhinoplasty clinic (King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between December 2022 and March 2023. Age, sex, and Fitzpatrick skin type were collected from the patients’ histories and physical examinations. Body mass index was calculated for the subjects. The study sample included 29 patients. The median age of the patients was 25 years (interquartile range: 20–32 y). Most of the included patients were Saudi (89.7%, n = 26). Females represented 62.1% of the study sample. The average BMI was 25.6 ± 4.95 kg/m2. The highest correlation was observed between the US and CT tip (r = 0.544, P < 0.01) and rhinion (r = 0.525, P < 0.01) measurements. Body mass index was not associated with any US or CT measurements when BMI was used as a continuous or ordinal variable. The correlation between the US and CT measurements was highest for rhinoin and tip measurements, whereas supratip measurements were not correlated (r = -0.029, P = 0.88). The correlation between mid-dorsum and nasion measurements was low (~0.3). The correlation between nasal skin thickness using CT and US varies depending on the nasal point and location. Body mass index was not associated with nasal skin thickness.