Open Rhinoplasty Concepts in Facilitating Tip Reconstruction

The nose is a frequent site for skin cancer, accounting for approximately 26% of basal cell carcinomas and approximately 13% of spinal cell carcinomas of the facial district. Also melanomas, mostly as lentigo maligna melanomas, are frequently located at the nasal pyramid. Although defects can be of varying size and depth, some even involving the whole trilaminar structure of the nose, most remain superficial and seldom reach and infiltrate the underlying framework. In contrast, they can be wide, thus requesting large flaps to resurface the defect. Although a technically well-planned and well-performed surgery can lead to excellent aesthetic results, scars from both donor and recipient sites can be noticeable. Since skin cancers generally affect older people, we often deal with aged noses. Such noses typically present some common features such as plunging tip, increased length, and a prominent hump due to several reasons, already well described in the literature. In this scenario, by reducing and addressing the framework, we can obtain a variable quota of downsizing of the original defect, thus requiring less skin for coverage, and thus reducing the size of needed flaps and consequent scars. This is greatly facilitated by the open rhinoplasty approach. Most of the maneuvers aimed at reducing the framework are indeed the same.