Preoperative Evaluation and Surgical Techniques for African-American Rhinoplasty

Abstract

The wide variation found in the African-American nose makes preoperative evaluation and surgical planning complicated. To bring order to these variations we have divided the African-American nose into three types: the African (type A), the Afro-Caucasian (type B), and the Afro-Indian (type C). The morphologic and anatomic properties of the groups and their surgical implications are described. In our preoperative evaluation of the African-American patient, we try to place the nose into one of the these categories. The process of classification makes us look more critically at the nasal features and the classification itself ties together the anatomic and morphologic properties of the particular nose and highlights the surgical options. In our practice we have also found it useful to divide the African-Americans who seek rhinoplasty into three groups. In group I are the newly emerging African-American professionals who want to maintain their ethnicity. In group II are the African-Americans in the modelling and entertainment industry who request caucasianization of their noses. In group III are the ambivalent patients, who want caucasianization but tell the surgeon the opposite. Those in group III are the most dissatisfied patients and must be identified preoperatively.