Summary The alar shift operation of Gillies and Kilner has fallen into disrepute. One reason may have been that it was incorrectly presented. The procedure gives excellent results in the correction of secondary cleft lip nasal deformities and can be combined with the Millard type of secondary cleft lip revision, because it is based on the same fundamental plastic surgical principle, enunciated by Gillies, First replace anatomical structures in their normal positions.