03/13/2026
(⚠️10-16) Dr. Paul Nassif came to me as a friend in 2013 to have his nose fixed. He underwent multiple prior rhinoplasties as well as resection of a basal cell cancer from the left side of his nose. This left a complex deformity where more than half of his left alar lobule was resected. Reconstruction of the nose required using his own rib cartilage to restructure his tip with a caudal septal extension graft, lateral crural replacement grafts, and lateral crural strut grafts. The most complex part of the reconstruction required harvesting large composite grafts to replace the missing skin of the left alar lobule and also to reline the missing vestibular skin. For the alar lobule, a large composite graft was used. To maximize composite graft survival, I used the “perichondrial underlay technique,” which involves trimming some skin from the graft so that half of the cartilage and perichondrium of the graft can extend under the cheek skin, enabling rapid vascularization.
He has done well and is now 13 years postoperative, and he looked great on his successful television program, “Botched.” He recently came to visit us and observe in surgery to learn dorsal preservation rhinoplasty using the low strip technique.
Revision rhinoplasty frequently requires complex grafting using composite skin and cartilage grafts from the ear. Once the ears are used for revision rhinoplasty, composite grafting is no longer possible. For this reason, I do not use ear cartilage for grafting for structural grafting. I only use the patient’s own rib cartilage for structural grafting with attached native perichondrium. Patients who present after undergoing a prior revision rhinoplasty using their ear cartilage are at a disadvantage for repair, as composite grafts may no longer be available. Fortunately, Dr. Nassif had his ears available, allowing me to reconstruct his deformed nose. If his ears were used previously, I would have to use a melolabial flap to fix the defect, which would have left a scar on his face and required a three-stage reconstruction.
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