Reducing Postoperative Swelling, Edema, and Ecchymosis after Open Rhinoplasty Using Intranasal Drainage

Reducing postoperative strain on the patient after rhinoplasty is an important goal for the surgeon. Many strategies are described to reach that goal. One strategy is to remove blood from under the dissected soft tissue envelope by drains, before it can infiltrate the different layers causing ecchymosis, edema, and swelling. In our setting with wide degloving and using drains, we could show a significant reduction in ecchymosis on day 2 and 14 after surgery ( p = 0.006 and p = 0.017). We also observed a significant effect for edema and general swelling on day 2 ( p = 0.027 and p = 0.004), but this effect did not reach significance for these two parameters on day 14. And although the long-term effect needs to be assessed in the future, we found that using drains in open rhinoplasty with wide degloving is an easily applicable, cheap, and reproducible approach to reduce postoperative ecchymosis, edema, and swelling.

Automated summary

Reducing postoperative strain on the patient after rhinoplasty is important, and using drains to remove blood from under the dissected soft tissue envelope can effectively decrease ecchymosis, edema, and swelling. Our study showed a significant reduction in ecchymosis on day 2 and 14 after surgery (p = 0.006 and p = 0.017) and a significant effect for edema and general swelling on day 2 (p = 0.027 and p = 0.004). Drains in open rhinoplasty with wide degloving are an easily applicable, cheap, and reproducible approach to reduce postoperative ecchymosis, edema, and swelling, although long-term effects need further evaluation.