Abstract
Background:
Periorbital edema and ecchymosis are frequent complications after rhinoplasty, impacting early recovery and patient satisfaction.
Objective:
To evaluate the effect of subperiosteal drain placement in patients undergoing ultrasonic piezo-assisted rhinoplasty, as measured by periorbital edema and ecchymosis on postoperative days (POD) 3, 7, and 14.
Methods:
In this prospective comparative study, 110 adults undergoing open rhinoplasty with piezo-assisted osteotomies were divided into drain (n = 55) and non-drain (n = 55) groups. The drain group received bilateral subperiosteal cannula drains along the osteotomy lines, removed on POD3. Edema and ecchymosis were graded by blinded observers on days 3, 7, and 14 using a 0–4 scale.
Results:
Patients were 28.2 ± 8.5 years; 76/110 (69.1%) were female; groups were balanced in age (p = 0.224) with a higher female proportion in the drain group (81.8% vs. 56.4%). At POD3 and POD7, total ecchymosis scores were lower with drains (POD3: 2.82 vs. 4.29, p = 0.002; POD7: 0.76 vs. 1.58, p = 0.001), while edema scores were similar between groups at all timepoints. By POD14, edema had resolved and ecchymosis was minimal in both groups.
Conclusions:
In this study, the use of subperiosteal drains in patients undergoing piezo-assisted osteotomies was found to be associated with a reduction in early postop ecchymosis, but not periorbital edema.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
