Q: I am a thick skinned, wide-nosed Asian patient that had Medpor bilateral strut graft & ear cartilage in my middle nose in a functional & aesthetic rhinoplasty. It narrowed my nose & helped me breath through both nostrils really well. I had it removed based on bad medical advice, am breathing poorly now & feel I need a similar structure in my nose. So long as I have scar tissue removed in revision, can’t I have the implant replaced w/ear? Why should I go through harvesting so much cartilage?
A: Medpor is inferior in the nose relative to autologous grafts (tissue from your own body) for many reasons, not least of which is its higher rate of complications. Ear cartilage is great for contour grafting, but is at times too flimsy to provide adequate structural grafting.
One misconception of cartilage grafts is that it prolongs recovery after rhinoplasty. It actually does not prolong it at all because during the week you have a cast and sutures on your nose, your donor site is also healing. The cast and sutures on your nose and donor site are all removed together at one week, and thus everything heals together and recovery is not lengthened one bit.
