Investigation of the Effects of Internal and External Lateral Osteotomies on Periorbital Edema and Ecchymosis in Patients Undergoing a Septorhinoplasty

Objective: Periorbital ecchymosis and edema are common after septorhinoplasty surgery. This study aimed to compare internal and external lateral nasal osteotomies performed in septorhinoplasty in terms of postoperative ecchymosis and edema. Methods: Patients who underwent septorhinoplasty between January 2020 and July 2020 in our clinic were included in the study. In all patients, right lateral nasal osteotomies were performed endonasally and left lateral nasal osteotomies externally. The postoperative 1st, 7th, and 14th day ecchymosis and edema scores of all patients were calculated separately for the two groups and compared. Results: A total of 60 patients (29 females, 31 males) were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 33.88 ± 10.30 years. No significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of the postoperative periorbital ecchymosis scores on the first day and the first and second weeks (0.314, 0.344, and 0.468, respectively). There was also no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the postoperative periorbital edema scores on the first day and at the first and second weeks (0.272, 0.359, and 0.513, respectively). Conclusion: The results obtained from this study showed no significant difference in the periorbital ecchymosis and edema scores between the patients who had undergone septorhinoplasty with internal or external lateral osteotomies. Further multicenter studies are recommended to verify the findings of this study with a larger sample size.