Aesthetic septorhinoplasty in the burned nose

Patients who have survived thermal injuries to the face suffer severe disfigurement from the devastating deformities of full-thickness facial burns. The nose is the prominent central organ of the face, which has crucial effect on Aesthetic appearance. The plastic surgeon's role to deal with such cases is to undertake procedures to produce a more pleasant look although the target organ could be the non-burned areas of the face. It is a common belief that surgical intervention under the scarred or grafted nose is risky and may result in skin or covering graft necrosis. For this reason, plastic surgeons are cautious and hesitate to perform Aesthetic surgery on burn scarred tissue. We present 13 cases, 10 women and three men with complete or subtotal nasal burn. Classic Aesthetic Rhinoplasty operations were performed to create a better appearance and correct any internal or external deviations. These procedures are carried out under severely burned skins, or previously grafted and reconstructed noses. Cases were followed for about a one-year period. There was no necrosis in any part of skin after surgery. We believe that Aesthetic rhinoplasty can be done safely in these victims with pleasing outcome. The problems that we encountered in these cases were irregularities of burned alar margins, multiple operations and intractable nasal deviation in severe cases. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved