The importance of paranasal tomography in planning septorhinoplasty

This study aims to emphasize the importance of paranasal tomography imaging before septorhinoplasty surgery. Preoperative evaluation of nasal bone structure, including medial and lateral bone thickness, guides osteotomy type selection and force application.

Preoperative paranasal sinus tomography scans of patients who were decided to undergo septorhinoplasty were retrospectively analyzed. Bilateral nasal bone length, medial and lateral bone thickness, pyriform aperture width and height were measured.

In 200 patients, the mean thickness of the right lateral osteotomy line was 1.66 ± 0.28 mm in males and 1.54 ± 0.25 mm in females, left lateral osteotomy line 1.67 ± 0.30 mm in males and 1.54 ± 0.28 mm in females. The mean thickness of the medial osteotomy line was 1.68 ± 0.36 mm in males and 1.58 ± 0.35 mm in females. The mean length of the nasal bone was 24.27 ± 4.1 mm in males and 22.78 ± 3.4 mm in females. The mean width of the pyriform aperture was 21.42 ± 2.19 mm in males and 20.49 ± 2.03 mm in females. The mean height of the pyriform aperture was 35.54 ± 4.76 mm in males and 33.93 ± 5.00 mm in females. The mean length of the right lateral nasal bone was 24.81 ± 2.75 mm in males and 21.14 ± 2.76 mm in females, the left lateral nasal bone was 23.91 ± 2.67 mm in males and 20.63 ± 2.69 mm in females. Nasal bone length, piriform aperture width and height, lateral bone thickness, lateral bone length mean values; statistically significant difference was observed between male and female patients (p < 0.05).

Preoperative paranasal tomography provides essential data for osteotomy planning by identifying significant anatomical variations in nasal bone structure. Statistically significant difference was observed between male and female patients in these measurements. We believe that we emphasize that the evaluation of bone thickness before surgery is important when performing osteotomy. There is no study in the literature measuring lateral nasal bone length. Our study measured right and left lateral bone length for the first time.