RHINOPLASTY: FACTS AND FICTION

Abstract

This paper is prompted by the desire to stimulate discussion to focus attention on a subject that has hitherto been regarded by the medical profession with mystified reverence, open derision or frank apathy. This material is presented, not from the point of view of the rhinoplastic surgeon, but from that of the rhinologist who considers rhinoplastic surgery a part of his work. It is confined to intranasal procedures for the correction of nasal deformities. HISTORIC BACKGROUND The history of surgical procedures for nasal deformities is relatively younger than that concerned with nasal construction. 1 As early as 1848, von Dieffenbach mentioned nasal shortening in his Operative Surgery. He cited two instances—one in which he corrected the ala nasi in a large nose and another in which he dealt with the reduction in a large but apparently normal nose—corrected through a cross incision of the skin and cartilage. His methods, however, were