Lessons learnt from an audit of 95 cases of major nasal reconstruction

Several texts detail the possible complications of nasal reconstruction but few critically describe a series. We present an audit of the complications of 95 major nasal reconstructions.

This is a retrospective analysis of 95 consecutive major nasal reconstructions (49 male, 46 female, aged between 4 and 92 years) over a 16-year period treated in a tertiary refer-ral centre.

Fifty-eight patients in our series required nasal reconstruction after Moh's Micrographic surgery for a morpheiform basal cell or a squamous cell carcinoma. Eight patients had further removal using frozen section to determine the margins, as the disease was very extensive. Minor procedures with local random flaps or full thickness skin grafts were excluded. Ninety-five patients underwent major reconstructive procedures and had an average of 2.8 operations.

The main problem was the suboptimal contouring of the alar margin in 6 of 54 patients who had a full thickness defect repaired. Other complications included telangectasia or hair growth requiring laser ablation (13), stenosis of the nasal valve area (2), ectropion after a cheek advancement flap, donor site haematoma of the pinna, and neuropathic pain.