Rhinoplasty without nasal packing and splinting

Abstract

Background/Aim. Most surgeons, at the end of corrective rhinoplasty, use endonasal tamponade and external splinting, primarily because of hemostasis and immobilization. Possible complications of this surgery are various. Pain, nose edema, palpebral swelling and ecchymosis, are the most common and usual. The aim of our study was to evaluate the incidence of nonaesthetic complications and the efficiency of corrective rhinoplasty without the use of tamponade and external splint. Methods. One hundred and fiftyone patients, who underwent primary corrective rhinoplasty without endonasal tamponade and without an external splint, were analyzed at the Clinical Centre "Kragujevac" in Kragujevac, Serbia, in the period 1999-May 2016. The surgeries were done by the same surgeon. Instead of a splint, sterile skin adhesive tapes were used. Study was prospective, consecutive case-series type. We analyzed the possible complications and subjective estimates of the patients who underwent primary corrective rhinoplasty in described fashion. In assessing postoparative pain, the visual analogue scale (VAS) in a range of 1 to 5 was used. Palpebral swelling and ecchymosis, were estimated 24h after surgery, by the Surgeon Periorbital Rating of Edema and Ecchymosis (SPREE) scale ranging from 0 to 5. The degree of restriction of nasal respiration was evaluated by the scale 1-4. The overall comfort of patients in the postoperative period was evaluated according to a scale: good, no opinion, bad.

The Use of Postoperative Compression Garments in Plastic Surgery—Necessary or Not? A Practical Review

“…12 The other three studies reviewed by Khan et al were retrospective case series of rhinoplasty patients who did not receive postoperative splints. [13][14][15] Across 2385 total patients, the collective results demonstrated that splinting was not necessary to achieve desirable aesthetic outcomes. Taken in consideration with the previous study described, the efficacy of compression therapy after rhinoplasty may depend on the method of application, with evidence favoring elastic bandaging over nasal splinting to reduce edema and ecchymosis postoperatively.…”