[Results of rhinoplasties. A computer study of 351 medical records]

The authors studied the cosmetic results of 1380 rhinoplasties carried out over a period of 10 years by two surgeons, Professor A. Pech and Professor M. Cannoni. They used a classical reduction rhinoplasty technique. Different procedures were used for the tip of the nose depending on the individual indications, and the development of ideas over a period of time. Only 351 files, complete with pre- and post-operative photographs have been selected. The photographs have been analyzed on the basis of 70 criteria by an independent, young female ENT specialist, and the results of her analysis were fed to the computer. The study provides three types of answer. Firstly, the results were good in 69% of cases, and the greater the experience of the surgeon, the greater the success. Secondly, the different techniques for correcting the tip of the nose are analysed with good scores for Cinelli's technique (69%). The tip modeling procedures of Converse and of Lipsett have been abandoned owing to the high frequency of round tips. Finally, the different types of anomalies encountered are listed: 42% round tips, 20% asymmetrical tips, 17% residual humps, 11% of wide nasal bones, hooked noses and postoperative deviations. The authors then comment on the results, focusing on following points: the frequency of incomplete files (70%); the general improvement in the results with the gaining of experience, the decline in the proportion of hooked noses, also in line with experience, from 24% in the first 5 years to 7% after 10 years; the development of ideas concerning the techniques to be used in correcting the tip of the nose with an evergrowing place for those sacrificing the dome of the alar cartilages, such as the "Hockey stick" and a personal procedure derived from Pollot; wide nasal bones and failures in the tracing of the naso-frontal angle (64%) for which no solution is suggested; and, finally, postoperative nasal deviations. Since undertaking this study, the authors have successfully avoided this defect by using the external approach.