Use of the alar base cinch suture in Le Fort I osteotomy: is it effective?

The alar base cinch suture is often used to mitigate the unfavourable increase in nasal width after Le Fort I impaction or advancement of the maxilla. Recently a number of studies have looked at the stability and clinical outcome of this intervention. We investigated the effect of an alar base cinch suture on the change in width of the alar base after Le Fort I osteotomy using a three-dimensional imaging system. Twenty-eight patients were prospectively randomised into an intervention group where a cinch suture was used, and a control group. The width of the alar base was measured before operation, and then at one, and six months. At six months it had increased from baseline by a median of 2mm in all patients. The median increase was greater in the control group than in the cinch placement group, but the difference was small. The range in both groups was large, indicating great individual variability. There was an overall reduction in the width of the alar base between one and six months after operation, which indicated some resolution of soft tissue oedema associated with the operation, but the median reduction was small and unlikely to be clinically significant. The preliminary findings suggest that the suture confers little benefit in controlling the width of the alar base of the nose after Le Fort I osteotomy. More recently it has been suggested that procedures using a modified cinch suture may result in greater stability.