Sail excision technique for overhanging thick ala in Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate the correction of overhanging alar with the vestibular triangular excision technique using preoperative and postoperative photographs. METHODS: This descriptive retrospective study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Fifty patients who underwent open rhinoplasty with the vestibular triangular excision technique were retrospectively assessed. Preoperative and postoperative photographs were examined to evaluate the alar-columellar relationship. Patients included had undergone either primary or revision rhinoplasties between January 2013 and March 2018 and had a thick hanging alar with a grade IV Gunter’s rating for alar-columellar discrepancies. Patient outcomes and satisfaction were subjectively assessed using the rhinoplasty outcome evaluation (ROE) scale and visual analog scale (VAS) by independent analysis of the right lateral, left lateral, and frontal view photographs by 2 rhinoplasty surgeons, both preoperatively and 1-year postoperatively. Statistical significance was calculated by Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. RESULTS: Patients’ ages ranged from 18 to 37 years (mean, 26.34). The study included 22 men (44%) and 28 women (56%). Mean preoperative and postoperative ROE scores were 10.12 and 19.3 and VAS scores 5.14 and 7.94. P-values for preoperative and postoperative comparison of both ROE and VAS were statistically significant (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Caring of alar soft tissue during rhinoplasty is important to correct overhanging alar to improve nasal appearance and patient satisfaction. The sail excision technique is reliable and simple and provides good patient satisfaction.