Abstract
Objective
Primary nasal correction has been demonstrated to be a beneficial practice for patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate. However, there is currently no consensus among cleft surgeons regarding the ideal approach to addressing the malpositioned cartilages. This study aims to introduce a new surgical technique for repositioning deformed lower lateral cartilage during primary cleft rhinoplasty, which involves using a customized suture needle.
Design
Retrospective cohort study.
Setting
Tertiary university-affiliated hospital.
Participants
This retrospective study included 51 patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate who underwent primary rhinoplasty during the labial repair.
Main outcome measures
A morphological analysis of the nose was conducted using three-dimensional (3D) photographs. The cleft-to-noncleft side ratios of various nasal parameters, including nasal tip volume, nostril width, height, and area, were calculated at three time points: preoperative (T0), 3 months postoperative (T1), and 1 year postoperative (T2).
Results
Significant improvement (p < 0.05) was observed in the cleft-to-noncleft side ratios of nasal volume and nostril parameters. The nasal volume ratio and nostril height ratio remained stable, with no significant differences between the T1 and T2 periods. The nostril width ratio increased from 0.96 ± 0.13 at T1 to 1.05 ± 0.16 at T2, indicating an appropriate degree of surgical overcorrection of nasal width during primary lip repair.
Conclusion
Primary cleft rhinoplasty using a Chang's needle allows direct suture placement in the intercartilaginous region with minimally invasive approach, thereby preserving growth potential of the nose and restoring the nasal symmetry.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
