Preservation Rhinoplasty: An Update

José Carlos Neves, MD

The search for a strategy that consistently allows us to deliver the best aesthetic result has led to the development of various techniques and surgical concepts in rhinoplasty. Of further importance is the growing awareness creating a stable and long-lasting structure that resists the healing process and the natural consequence of the aging. In addition to this, there is a demand for natural results that do not denounce an operated nose and respect the facial structure, gender, and ethnicity.

Preservation rhinoplasty aims to respect all structural elements whenever possible, from the soft tissue envelope and ligaments to the continuity of the bone–cartilage units. After more than a century since the launch of the concepts of conservation of the nasal dorsum, it is only recently the concept is being massively brainstormed and developed by a growing group of surgeons who have created a conceptual revolution, as stated by Rollin Daniel, convincing even sceptics that with the mastery of appropriate indications, it is an extraordinary tool that provides natural and respectful results of the structure that prevent complications of greater severity, with reduced revision rates, as well as revisions that tend to be of considerably reduced difficulty and aggressiveness.

The way in which the various soft tissue layers are delicately treated and respected is also reflected in the definition of the proposed result, both in the immediate postoperative period and in the later postoperative period, from an aesthetic and functional point of view.

With the evolution of global surgery to minimally invasive but highly efficient techniques, rhinoplasty also has to adapt conceptually to this trend, preserving as much as possible, any and all nasal structure, while considering the need for restructuring, with special attention to the nasal tip.

This issue of the journal aims to dissect and expose some of the most important concepts in the art of preserving the nose!

Publication History

Article published online:
12 April 2021