Impact of Functional and Aesthetic Factors on Patient Satisfaction in Septorhinoplasty.

[OBJECTIVE] This study aimed to differentiate the functional or aesthetic factors affecting the result of septorhinoplasty and to determine the most important factor related to patient satisfaction.

[METHODS] Rhinoplasty Outcome Evaluation (ROE) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for obstruction (VAS-O) and for appearance (VAS-A) were administered to fifty-five patients undergoing septorhinoplasty preoperatively and six months after the surgery. VAS scores were evaluated as follows: VAS-O (0: unblocked, 10: completely blocked) and VAS-A (0: worst appearance, 10: best appearance). ROE scores were calculated between 0 and 100. In order to examine the relationship between the measurements and determine the most powerful item that affects the overall ROE score, path analysis was performed, and the path coefficients were calculated.

[RESULTS] The mean VAS-O and VAS-A scores before and after surgery were 6.85 and 4.36, and 3.91 and 7.22, respectively (p<0.001). The absolute value of mean difference was greater for VAS-A (-3.31) than VAS-O (-2.49), which also means appearance scores were more widely affected. The mean ROE score was increased from 46.36±9.28 to 78.85±11.70. VAS-A score had a significant impact on the overall ROE score (β=0.782, p=0.001), while the VAS-O score had no impact. The least effective item on the overall ROE score was item 2 (β=0.445), while the other items related to aesthetic outcome had higher Path coefficients.

[CONCLUSION] Although septorhinoplasty provides satisfactory results in both functional and aesthetic aspects, patients are more satisfied with the cosmetic outcomes.