True and Average Internal Nasal Valve Area in Septorhinoplasty: Radiological and Clinical Outcomes

The internal nasal valve provides most of the upper airway resistance; therefore, many surgical techniques have been developed to reconstruct and widen this sensitive area of the nasal airway. Twenty patients participated in this study to compare the effects of 2 techniques (spreader grafts and modified spreader flap) on the true valve area and the average valve area after rhinoplasty according to standard axial computed tomography on admission and 6 months following the surgery. The mean follow-up time was 10.2 months. After rhinoplasty, the average valve area increased in all patients who underwent the spreader graft or modified spreader flap techniques. The preoperative average valve areas for patients undergoing the spreader graft and spreader flap techniques were (37.10 ± 16.45 mm) and (36.86 ± 10.56 mm), respectively, whereas the postoperative results were (48.58 ± 12.85 mm) for those who underwent the spreader graft technique and (56.22 ± 19.06 mm) for those who underwent the modified spreader flap technique. Both techniques resulted in significant radiological and clinical improvement with a good correlation between the subjective and objective tests. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.