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77th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

24.05. - 28.05.2006, Mannheim

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The Stabilisation of the Nasal Alar with Autologous Conchal Cartilage in Inspiratory Nasal Valve Collapse

Die Stabilisieung der Nasenflügel mit autologem Concha-Knorpel bei inspiratorischem Nasenflügelkollaps

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Bernhard Vanselow - HNO-Klinik, St.Vincentius-Kliniken, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Jürgen Mertens - HNO-Klinik, St.Vincentius-Kliniken, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Sandra Gunser - HNO-Klinik, St.Vincentius-Kliniken, Karlsruhe, Germany

German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 77th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Mannheim, 24.-28.05.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. Doc06hno086

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2006/06hno086.shtml

Published: September 7, 2006

© 2006 Vanselow et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Inspiratory nasal valve collapse (INVC) is a possible cause of nasal airway obstruction. There are several surgical techniques for nasal alar stabilisation described and used but however none has become a standard procedure yet.

Method: 19 patients with INVC underwent our procedure of alar stabilisation by using a single autologous conchal cartilage implant. As a so far not described technical step a support for the implant at the upper septal margin had been created. The investigation was retrospective by analyzing the objectives and using a structured questionary 6 weeks and >6 months after operation.

Results: After >6 months from the operation none of the Patients showed an INAC at normal inspiration any more and 11 of them also not at forced inspiration. 18 patients felt a substantial increased nasal airflow of which 5 described it as just unilateral. The average increase of total nasal flow measured by rhinomanometry was 241.9 ml/s (+60.1%, p=0.009). Postoperatively 6 patients showed a moderate widening at the supratip region of the external nose due to the stabilizing transplant which sensed three of them as aesthetically affecting. One postoperatively occurred perichondritis at the donor ear healed without further complications under antibiotic therapy. At the end 18 from 19 patients declared that they would decide again for the operation and found it successful.

Conclusion: Because of is natural congruent shape conchal cartilage is a preferred implant for nasal alar stabilisation in INVC. The additional support of the implant at the upper septal margin allows it to use the elastic tension of the cartilage for alar stabilisation. Our results show that thereby satisfactory results can be achieved up to a high grade.