A previously operated nose – where do the challenges lie here?

Patients who have already undergone rhinoplasty in the past and were not satisfied with the result usually have a long ordeal behind them.

One finally dares to take the step, which does after all take some courage, and afterwards finds oneself all the more dissatisfied when looking in the mirror. Some patients have even developed worse nasal breathing than before the operation and may have suffered from it for many years.

Why is a previously operated nose a challenge?

Previously operated noses are always a challenge, since the anatomy of the nose has already been greatly changed in the past. Beyond that there is internal scarring to varying degrees. The surgeon sometimes has to restore a great deal of the original anatomy and function of the nose so that it looks normal again.

Can parts of the nose be ‘restored’ if necessary?

It can sometimes happen that the patient's previously operated nose turned out too small, or that certain areas of the nose have ‘collapsed’ or become distorted, and that for this reason they have to be rebuilt in the course of a second operation.

In this case the operation can become very complex, so that a piece of cartilage has to be ‘borrowed’ from other parts of the body such as the ear or the ribs for this reconstruction.

Higher expectations

With noses that have already been operated on there is also a very strong psychological component involved. That is to say the patient has already been operated on beforehand and was so dissatisfied that she is undergoing a procedure again and therefore expects the perfect result all the more. There are very high expectations behind this, which the surgeon has to live up to.