During the operation: your day at the Kuzbari Centre

The day of surgery

From the initial consultation through the treatment to the aftercare, the Kuzbari Centre in Vienna provides every service under one roof. The operation therefore also takes place in our own theatre. You do not have to change buildings that day, get to know an unfamiliar clinic or explain your situation to anyone a second time.

We are highly selective about our team and, for anaesthesia too, work only with experienced specialists. Whoever looks after you in theatre belongs to the house — not to a rotating pool.

Why the operation takes one to four hours

A rhinoplasty here takes one to four hours. That range is deliberate: we operate in our own theatres and therefore without time pressure — for as long as it takes until every detail is right. How long a procedure takes is decided by the findings, not by the appointment book.

What determines the length can be named quite precisely. A correction confined to the tip of the nose is finished in less time than an operation in which bridge, septum and tip are altered together. If the breathing has to be addressed as well, time is added. And a nose that has already been operated on demands considerably more: scar tissue has to be released carefully, missing cartilage has to be replaced, often from the ear or a rib.

For you as a patient the length changes little — you are asleep. For the outcome it changes a great deal. The last millimetres of a nasal tip, the symmetry of the nostrils, the clean transition from bone to cartilage: those are steps that cannot be hurried without giving something up.

Our own operating theatre

For our surgical procedures we use our own operating rooms. They reach the highest hygiene class and meet every international standard. Thanks to those strict requirements we can offer you a surgical area whose uniquely circular shape forms an exceptional protective zone for you and the entire theatre team.

The practical advantage is unspectacular and still counts: everything needed for nasal surgery is here — instruments, anaesthesia, recovery room, nursing, patient rooms. Nothing has to be requested, coordinated or postponed.

What happens in the operating theatre

During the operation you sleep and feel nothing. Even after nasal surgery our patients rarely report pain. Some feel a mild headache, others report no pain at all. Everyone copes well with the painkillers prescribed by Dr. Christoph Grill and DDr. Jessica Wittmann.

Surgically, the operation follows the plan agreed in the initial consultation with the 3D simulation. We work a great deal with the modern nose-bridge-preserving technique known as dorsal preservation, as well as with hybrid techniques — not exclusively with traditional structural septorhinoplasty. The natural bridge of the nose is preserved rather than taken down and rebuilt. The outcome looks particularly natural, it is stable in the long term, and the risk of later irregularities along the bridge goes down.

We stabilise the tip of the nose using modern cartilage-supported techniques. This considerably reduces the risk of drooping of the nasal tip over the years. Precisely those steps take time — and are the reason an operation here may last longer when the findings call for it.

The Piezotom: ultrasound instead of a chisel

Where the bony part of the nose has to be altered in a rhinoplasty, we work with the Piezotom. It is an ultrasound instrument that cuts and smooths bone while leaving soft tissue, mucosa and vessels untouched – classically this step is done with chisel and saw. For patients that means more precise bone work and, as a rule, fewer bruises and less swelling in the days that follow.

We think an honest assessment matters: the Piezotom is not a rhinoplasty method in its own right and does not automatically make nasal surgery better. It is a tool for one step. What remains decisive is the planning and the experience of the surgeon. We use the Piezotom as standard in every nasal operation, Univ. Doz. Dr. Rafic Kuzbari for years now.

The projectometer: measured, not estimated

The projectometer is a fine stainless-steel measuring instrument placed directly on the nose within the sterile field. It carries a millimetre scale, an adjustable arm and a protractor, and with them it records the two values that determine the profile of a nose: how far the tip projects forward, and how high the bridge sits.

DDr. Jessica Wittmann works with it during her nasal operations. Before the first step she takes the baseline measurement. After every further step — after the bridge has been lowered, after a support has been placed at the tip — she measures again and compares the figure with the plan drawn up during the initial consultation on the 3D simulation. Whether the bridge has been reduced by the planned amount and the tip raised accordingly is therefore settled in theatre as a measured value.

The classification matters to us: the projectometer makes no decisions. Planning and experience remain the surgeon’s achievement. The instrument checks them — and makes it possible to follow whether what happens in theatre matches what you saw on screen beforehand.

Recovery room, night and discharge

We visit you in the recovery room straight after the operation. The next morning we hold the follow-up talk with you in your room. Our surgeons examine you and go through how the operation went.

You can leave the Kuzbari Centre before 10 o’clock. You go home with a nasal splint or a nasal dressing, which you wear for around ten days. On discharge you have your surgeon’s mobile number in your pocket, so that you can reach your medical contact outside consulting hours should anything worry you. You are of course also welcome to contact the centre at any time.

Of interest to you?

What happens after the operation? · See before-and-after photographs · The greatest possible safety

Frequently asked questions about the day of surgery