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Endoscopic Septoplasty with Limited Two-line Resection: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Septal Deviation
Published on: June 20, 2018
Human fingernail as interpositional graft material in the treatment of nasal septal perforations
Arzu Akçal1, Semra Karsidag2, Ozay Ozkaya3
1Assistant Professor, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey.
Purpose:
The etiology of nasal septal perforations involves iatrogenic, traumatic, inflammatory, infectious, neoplastic, and caustic causes. To ensure successful closure, an appropriate interpositional graft material should be selected, and this graft material should be covered with healthy tissue.
Materials And Methods:
The study included 18 New Zealand white rabbits weighing 2 to 2.5 kg. Nasal septal perforations were created in group 1. After the creation of defects in group 2, repair was performed with cartilage graft and bilateral mucoperichondrial advancement flaps. After septal nasal perforations in group 3, the defect was covered with fingernail and bilateral mucoperichondrial flaps.
Results:
At week 12, the rabbits were sacrificed. The septum site that had been repaired with fingernail was intact. No nail exposition, wound site decomposition, or re-perforation was observed. No findings of a breach of the structural integrity of the fingernails or disintegration were encountered.
Conclusion:
Fingernails can be used as an interpositional graft material in place of cartilage in eligible cases for the repair of nasal septal perforations. Fingernails have several properties that enable their use in such cases, such as form preservation that is similar to cartilage, the lack of live cells, easy availability, and a lack of donor-site morbidity at removal.
