Recently many studies have demonstrated that perforating method of lateral nasal osteotomy causes less edema and echymosis than those of continuous method of lateral nasal osteotomy. For lessening the damage of nasal mucosa, authors performed continuous nasal lateral osteotomy(NLO) with an aid of silastic strip insertion into the subperiosteal pocket on the medial side of nose along the line of osteotomy. NLO was performed in 5 patients for correction of bony abnormality. In each patient, internal perforating NLO was performed on one side of nasal bone using 2-mm straight osteotome and protected continuous NLO was performed on the other side using 4-mm curved guided osteotome. The condition of nasal mucosa was checked using endoscopy immediately after the procedure. On postoperative days 2, 7, 14, and 21 the degrees of ecchymosis and edema of each side evaluated using clinical photos(Canon EOS 300D).
Mild edema and ecchymosis were observed in both sides on postoperative days 2, 7, 14, there were no significant differences between right side and left side. This study confirmed that concerning postoperative ecchymosis and edema there were no significant differences between in protected continuous NLO and in perforating NLO. We conclude that whatever the technique of NLO, the degrees of post operative edema and ecchymosis may depends on the degree of nasal soft tissue trauma.